The prosecution in the Etan Patz trial asked the judge that one of its witnesses be declared hostile and the defense asked for a mistrial (both requests were denied) after the witness changed his story several times while on the stand Tuesday. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.

Juan Santana, 69, is the brother-in-law of the man on trial in the murder of Etan Patz.

Santana was the cashier at the bodega Etan was walking to on the morning he disappeared. The first grader never arrived.

Santana said on the stand Tuesday that he got Pedro Hernandez a job as a clerk in the store and even let him sleep in his apartment across the street.

The FBI searched the bodega's basement in 2012. Prosecutors allege Hernandez lured the 6-year-old there, strangled him and tossed his body in the trash.

The question today: what did Santana know and when? He changed his story on the witness stand Tuesday from one minute to the next.

At first, he said the defendant's last day at work was a month after Etan's disappearance. Then, he said it was a week after. Prosecutors said he previously told the grand jury that the defendant's last day of work was the day the child went missing. 

One thing never changed: his claim that Pedro Hernandez worked in the bodega the exact day Etan was last seen alive.

But frustrated by the discrepancies, the prosecutor wanted to declare her own witness hostile. The judge denied that request and the defense's immediate demand for a mistrial

    Herzenberg: Why a mistrial?

    Harvey Fishbein, defense attorney: Because I thought what     happened inside was improper and done by the district attorney's     office.

    Herzenberg: What was improper about it?

    Fishbein: You don't put a witness on that you believe is not going to     be telling the truth.

The witnesses' wildly changing testimony underscores the difficulty in proving a murder case decades old.

The trial resumes Thursday. Prosecutors plan to put Santana back on the witness stand .