NEW YORK (AP) – Jurors will hear closing arguments from prosecutors Tuesday in the case against a man accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz (AY’-tahn payts) in 1979.
Pedro Hernandez confessed to the crime in 2012. He says on video that he choked the boy in the basement of a convenience store. He says he put the boy’s body in a bag, the bag in a box and walked it down the street. Etan’s body was never found.
His defense attorney Harvey Fishbein argued his client’s confession is made up. He says the real killer is another longtime suspect, convicted pedophile Jose Ramos, who was never charged in the case. Federal prosecutors investigated Ramos for years but the Manhattan district attorney’s office never brought him to trial.
Prosecutors say Hernandez’s confession is sound.