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Etan Patz Murder Confession Can Be Used As Evidence, Judge Rules

By Trevor Kapp | November 24, 2014 12:01pm
 A Manhattan judge ruled Monday that the videotaped confessions of Pedro Hernandez can be used in his murder trial.
Pedro Hernandez Video Confession Can be Admitted as Evidence, Judge Says
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STATE SUPREME COURT — The videotaped confessions of the man charged in the 1979 disappearance and murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz can be used as evidence in trial, a judge ruled Monday.

Judge Maxwell Wiley’s decision allows for a jury to consider the confession of Pedro Hernandez, 53, when deliberating, despite the fact Hernandez has a low IQ and a history of mental illness.

“I am denying the motion to suppress,” Wiley said in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Hernandez has been charged with murder for allegedly snatching Patz from a bus stop in May 1979 and later strangling him in the basement of a SoHo bodega.

“I grabbed him by the neck and started choking him,” Hernandez told police in the confession. “I was nervous, my legs were jumping.”

“I wanted to let go, but I couldn’t,” he added. “I felt like something took over me.”

Hernandez’s defense attorney, Harvey Fishbein, had sought to throw out his client’s confession because he claimed Hernandez did not understand his Miranda rights.

But Wiley ruled that his "waiver of his Miranda rights was knowing and intelligent" and added that despite his low IQ, Hernandez attented high school and passed most of his classes.

Fishbein insisted said Monday’s ruling wasn’t a setback.

“It’s not a blow. We anticipate that a jury will decide this case,” he said. “It doesn’t go to their reliability. It’s just whether or not they were admissible.”

Stanley Patz, Etan’s father, declined to comment after the decision.

The trial is expected to begin Jan. 5.