Pedro Hernandez is charged with killing 6-year-old Etan Patz (inset) in 1979. (credit: CBS2/Stanley K. Patz)
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The prosecution and defense Friday were preparing jurors for a new video, which could amount to a bombshell in the trial of the man who confessed to killing Etan Patz.
As CBS2’s Dave Carlin reported, interrogation videos have already been shown in the trial of Pedro Hernandez, who is charged with killing Etan, 6, in 1979.
“I grabbed him by the neck and I started to choke him. I was nervous. My legs were jumpy,” Hernandez said in the video. “I wanted to let go but I just couldn’t let go. I felt like something just took over me.”
On Friday, police officers testified for the prosecution about the other interrogations that took place off camera. The testimony was leading up to the release next week of a police video that the defense said shows Hernandez at times getting chummy with detectives.
“He’s a client who has issues,” said defense attorney Harvey Fishbein.
Fishbein said Hernandez’s confession is all a big lie. He said the previously unseen video runs half an hour long, and will show the manipulation of a client he said has a low IQ and is easily swayed.
Fishbein said the video shows “the police officers having (Hernandez) in the corner, right up against him — rubbing his head, rubbing his shoulders — one saying, ‘You have the strength of the Lord, Pedro, thank you, thank you.’”
Prosecutors told CBS2 they will not comment until after the trial is over.
The defense plans to attempt to redirect the jury’s attention to another man not in the courtroom.
Convicted pedophile Jose Ramos had been the boyfriend of Patz’s babysitter, and is in prison for other crimes. He was long identified as the prime suspect.
The Patz family won a civil wrongful death case against Ramos in April 2004. An informant who spent time in prison with Ramos may be called to testify in the Hernandez trial.
Etan disappeared while walking to his school bus stop in SoHo on May 25, 1979. Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk at a bodega a few blocks from where Etan was last seen.
The little boy’s body was never found, but he was legally declared dead as the investigation spanned decades.
Etan’s disappearance ushered in a new protectiveness into American parenting.
He became one of the first missing children featured on milk cartons. His parents advocated for legislation that created a nationwide law-enforcement framework to address such cases.
The previously unseen video of Hernandez is expected to be shown in court Monday.
