LOWER MANHATTAN — Jurors in the Etan Patz murder trial watched another video confession Monday, a tape in which an emotional Pedro Hernandez is patted on the head and hugged by NYPD as he describes choking the 6-year-old 35-years-ago.
“I was the one who hurt the child,” said Hernandez in the tape, recorded more than two years ago, before sobbing. “And I hope they can forgive me for what I did.”
This is the second confession tape the jury has watch since the trial for Hernandez — charged with murder and kidnapping for choking the SoHo boy on May 25, 1979 — began last month.
This confession was taped after seven hours of unrecorded interrogation in Camden, N.J. — where Hernandez, who lives in New Jersery, was first taken when arrested.
Three NYPD detectives are seen comforting Hernandez, 54, throughout the video. One detective pats his head and embraces him several times.
“I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of you,” an NYPD detective says in the tape. “That’s the strength of the Lord.”
Since making his confession more than two years ago without a lawyer present, Hernandez has pleaded not guilty — and now stands trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Hernandez’s lawyers argue that he suffers from mental illness and made a false confession after being coerced.
In the video, Hernandez says he lured the child into the basement of the bodega where he worked, choked him, then stuffed him into a garbage bag — emphasizing that the boy was still alive, but limp, before he dumped him into the garbage.
“I was standing behind him, and I put my hands around his neck,” Hernandez said. “Then I choked him.”
“He was alive. He was alive,” Hernandez added repeatedly. “He wasn’t dead. I didn’t do it. I only choked him.”
In the video, shot in a small windowless room, police thank Hernandez for his confession. They asked him to sign a confession that one detective had been handwriting as he spoke. They also have him sign a missing child poster of Etan, admitting that he strangled the boy.
"How do you spell choke?" Hernandez asked, before signing his name.
Police have found no physical evidence to corroborate Hernandez's story. He's been in jail since his arrest in May 2012, after a family member called a tip into police.
Etan, whose family still lives on Prince Street, disappeared the first day he was allowed to walk to the school bus by himself. A lengthy police investigation proved inconclusive.
In 2001, the child was declared dead, even though his body was never found.
Hernandez's trial is slated to last three months.
