The lone holdout juror in the first trial of 6-year-old Etan Patz’s accused killer appeared in court Wednesday to show his support for the defense — just as the new panel was set to begin deliberations.
Adam Sirois was the only panelist who voted against the conviction of Pedro Hernandez in the 2015 trial, which ended in a hung jury after 18 days of deliberation.
He sat in the gallery in a row opposite the victim’s father, Stan Patz, as Justice Maxwell Wiley delivered instructions to the new jury.
“I felt it was important to show my support for the Hernandez family and for my stance on the case,” he said as he left Manhattan Supreme Court. “If you really look at the evidence you can’t draw the conclusion that Mr. Hernandez is responsible for this crime,” he said.
Two ex-jurors, who voted for conviction, and one alternative — all of whom have been steadfast in their belief in Hernandez’s guilty — sat together in a row behind Stan.
Sirois, who’s had a chilly relationship with most of the previous jurors, said that he couldn’t get beyond reasonable doubt. Testimony about longtime suspect in the case, convicted pedophile Jose Ramos, and the defendant’s history of mental illness swayed him against a conviction.
Six jurors were in the gallery Tuesday to watch the prosecution’s summation, including ex-juror Cynthia Cueto who has been in courtroom almost every day of the retrial, taking notes and offering feedback to prosecutors.
“It was a stronger case this time around,” she said. “They [prosecutors] were able to highlight many things that either we didn’t hear, or we had to find ourselves in the deliberation room.”
Cueto added, ”I sat with Mr. Patz every day, and it’s horrible he has to go through this again.”
Etan disappeared May 25, 1979, the first time he walked alone to the school bus stop. His body was never found. In 2012 authorities received a tip that Hernandez, a former stock clerk at the bodega next to the bus stop, had killed the boy.
After a 6.5 hour interrogation, Hernandez confessed on videotape to luring Etan into the bodega basement with the promise Cratosslot of a soda, strangling him and dumping his limp body in an alley two blocks away.
The defense argued that Hernandez’s low intelligence and history of mental illness made him susceptible to a false confession.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner
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