What to Know
- Etan Patz disappeared May 25, 1979, the first day he was allowed to walk the two blocks to his bus stop alone
- Jurors previously deadlocked in the murder trial of Pedro Hernandez, a teenage stock clerk in Patz's neighborhood, prompting a mistrial
- Detectives say Hernandez confessed to killing the boy; the defense claimed he was innocent and was coerced into making a confession
A judge in New York has delayed the sentencing of a man convicted in a second trial of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979.
Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled Thursday that next week's sentencing for Pedro Hernandez will be postponed. A new date wasn't yet set. Hernandez's attorney Harvey Fishbein requested the delay to investigate whether a juror may have known during proceedings that members of the first jury were in the audience.
Hernandez, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, was convicted Feb. 14 of second-degree murder and kidnapping in one of New York's most notorious missing-children's cases. Etan was among the first missing children who appeared on milk cartons.
An earlier trial ended in a hung jury when a single juror did not want to convict.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
