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Read the press release here.

Etan Patz Jurors Review Testimony That Points to Different Suspect

 Jurors in the Etan Patz trial are rehearing testimony that points to convicted child molester Jose Ramos (left) instead of defendant Pedro Hernandez (right).
Jurors in the Etan Patz trial are rehearing testimony that points to convicted child molester Jose Ramos (left) instead of defendant Pedro Hernandez (right).
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Pennysylvania Dept. of Corrections/ Steven Hirsch/ Pool

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — After days of deliberations, jurors deciding the fate of Pedro Hernandez — the former bodega worker accused of strangling 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 — asked to review hours of testimony that pointed to another suspect in the case.

On Friday — the eighth day of deliberations — jurors reheard testimony from a former federal prosecutor who doggedly pursued Jose Ramos, a convicted child molester who was dating Etan’s babysitter when the little boy went missing in SoHo.

Ramos, 71, has been incarcerated in Pennsylvania since 1986, after being convicted of raping two young boys.

Hernandez’s lawyers had argued during the 10-week trial that Ramos was the more likely murderer, using testimony of former federal prosecutor Stuart Grabois to bolster their claims.

At trial, Grabois told jurors that Ramos had admitted to him he was “90 percent sure” he had picked up Etan from Washington Square Park the day the boy vanished on May 25, 1979, brought Etan back to his nearby apartment and tried to have sex with him.

But when the boy resisted, Ramos claimed he put him on an uptown subway, Grabois said.

Grabois' testimony also includes graphic details about how Ramos molested the son of Etan’s babysitter, Susan Harrington.

The jury also asked to hear testimony from the former FBI agent in charge of the Etan’s case. She testified that Ramos told her he molested a boy he picked up in Washington Square Park on the day Etan went missing, but that boy was named “Jimmy.”

Prosecutors have argued that Grabois became “obsessed” with the case and was overzealous in his pursuit of Ramos. No direct evidence tied Ramos to the crime, but a civil judge declared Ramos was responsible for the boy’s disappearance in 2004.

After 35 years of searching, Etan's body was never found and no other physical evidence was uncovered.

Jurors have spent the past eight days poring over a variety of evidence in the case, including revisiting testimony from relatives who claim Hernandez had confessed, though in slightly different versions, to killing a boy years ago.

Though Hernandez, 54, confessed three years ago to strangling the boy in the basement of the bodega where he worked, his lawyers argue that he is mentally feeble, suffers from delusions and is unable to distinguish fantasy from reality.

Hernandez, a father of three from New Jersey, had no previous criminal record before confessing to police in 2012 that he choked the young boy, placed his limp body in a garbage bag and dumped him in the trash a few blocks away.

Hernandez's wife and daughter have sat each day in the courtroom, awaiting the verdict.

Etan’s father and sister were present for the trial, but have not been in court as the jury reviews the case.

Deliberations are expected to continue Monday.