Third Trial Looms In NYC Milk Carton Case Of Etan Patz

NEW YORK, NY— A judge cleared the way for a third trial in the killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz, rejecting a defense bid to dismiss charges against the man accused of abducting and killing him on his way to school in 1979.

Pedro Hernandez, 65, has remained in custody since his 2012 arrest. He is scheduled to return to court in June for a status update. A new trial date has not been set.

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Judge Michele Rodney denied arguments from defense lawyers who said prosecutors waited too long to bring charges and that extensive media coverage would prevent a fair trial.

“The court will carefully work, together with the parties, to ensure that jurors are selected who promise to be fair and to consider only the evidence and the law, despite what they have learned about the case from the media,” Rodney wrote.

Hernandez’s attorneys declined to comment. Prosecutors did not immediately respond.

Etan disappeared during a two-block walk to his school bus stop, the first time his mother allowed him to go alone. His case drew national attention, and his image appeared on milk cartons across the country.

The anniversary of his disappearance, May 25, later became National Missing Children’s Day.

Hernandez, then a 19-year-old clerk at a neighborhood convenience store, did not emerge as a suspect for decades.

Investigators reopened the case after receiving a 2012 tip that he had told people he killed a child in New York.

Police said Hernandez confessed after hours of questioning, describing how he lured Etan into a basement with the promise of a soda and strangled him.

Before receiving a formal warning of his rights, he told officers what happened. Afterward, he repeated the account on video.

“Something just took over me,” Hernandez said.

Defense lawyers argued the statements were unreliable, describing them as the product of a mentally ill and intellectually limited man influenced by years of publicity surrounding the case.

A 2015 trial ended with a deadlocked jury. A second trial in 2017 resulted in a conviction, but a federal appeals court later overturned the verdict, citing errors in how the judge instructed jurors on evaluating the confessions.

Prosecutors have said they will pursue another trial. They have also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the conviction, though the court has not indicated whether it will take up the case.

The case remains unresolved more than four decades after Etan’s disappearance.