The judge in the Etan Patz case on Monday set a February 2016 retrial date for accused murderer Pedro Hernandez. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.
Harvey Fishbein, Pedro Hernandez's defense attorney, called his client's retrial date unfair and unbelievable loudly in court Monday.
"There's tension because my client sits in jail and the people keep requesting for a delay," Fishbein said.
The new assistant district attorney overseeing the case says he needs more time to prepare after the former lead prosecutor resigned to run for Staten Island district attorney. Her replacement walked out of court Monday with Stan Patz, the father of Etan Patz. Stan Patz on this day sat with three jurors from the first trial.
"He was a mystery to me for four months while I was a juror," said Edwin Thompson, a juror from the first trial. "He sat out there. I never spoke to him."
They empathize with the Patz family and, like them, believe in Hernandez's guilt.
"We're here to support the new ADA and to support the Patzs and to find justice for Etan," said Joan Brooks, a juror from the first trial.
Hernandez was cuffed and in an orange corrections jump suit, unlike his arraignment and nearly three-month-long murder and kidnapping trial that ended in mistrial. After 17 days of deliberations, 11 jurors voted guilty. One voted not guilty.
Hernandez's defense maintains that he confessed to the crime four times because he's mentally ill and falsely believed he killed little Etan. Those videotaped sessions with authorities were central to the prosecution's case, as were the five people in Hernandez's life who testified that he told them he killed someone.
Hernandez worked in a bodega on the corner where Etan was headed on the morning he went missing. His disappearance transformed the way police across the country handle missing children and the way parents watch their kids.
Jury selection will begin February 22. That could take longer than a week, but both sides believe they can find an impartial jury.