By Joseph Ax
NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A New Jersey man suspected of
the 1979 killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz pleaded not guilty on
Wednesday to murder and kidnapping charges, six months after
police said he confessed to a chilling crime that has long
haunted New Yorkers.
Pedro Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, said during
police questioning in May that he had lured the boy and
strangled him on May 25, 1979, but his lawyer said on Wednesday
that he no longer admits to the crime. In the 1970s, Hernandez
had worked at a deli near the Patz home in Manhattan's Soho
neighborhood.
Patz disappeared while walking alone for the first time to a
school bus stop, and his case helped spark a national movement
on the issue of missing children. He was one of the first
missing children whose faces appeared on milk cartons as part of
an appeal for information from the public.
Patz's body has not been found but he was legally declared
dead in 2001.
In the months after Hernandez's confession, a grand jury
indicted him on two counts of second-degree murder and one count
of first-degree kidnapping.
In a brief court appearance in state Supreme Court in
Manhattan, Hernandez, wearing a gray fleece pullover and
sweatpants, spoke only once, saying "not guilty" when asked to
enter a plea to the charges. His wife and daughter attended the
hearing but left quickly without speaking to reporters.
Hernandez's court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, said
authorities appear to have no physical evidence to corroborate
Hernandez's confession. He said he plans to ask a judge to
dismiss the case based on insufficient evidence.
"You can't support the indictment solely with these
statements," he said following the court hearing. "There is no
crime scene here. There were no witnesses to a crime."
He also repeated his assertion that the confession is false
and that Hernandez suffers from mental illness, including
hallucinations.
"He did not commit this crime," Fishbein said.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office,
Erin Duggan, has said prosecutors believe Hernandez's confession
will withstand scrutiny.
For years, Jose Ramos, a friend of Patz's babysitter, was
the prime suspect in the case, although he was never criminally
charged. Ramos was found liable for Patz's death in a 2004 civil
case.
Ramos, 69, was released in November from a Pennsylvania
prison after serving 20 years for molesting children but was
immediately rearrested on other charges.
Fishbein said on Wednesday that Ramos remains a "far more
likely" suspect in Patz's disappearance than Hernandez.
Hernandez is expected to return to court on Jan. 30.
The case is People v. Hernandez, New York State Supreme
Court, New York County, No. 4863/2012.
For the prosecution: Assistant District Attorneys Armand
Durastanti and Penelope Brady.
For Hernandez: Harvey Fishbein.
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