NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0Almost four decades after first-grader Etan Patz set out for school and ended up at the heart of one of America\u2019s most influential missing-child cases, a former store clerk convicted of killing him was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.<\/p>\n
In a few angry words, Etan\u2019s father condemned the convicted man. \u201cPedro Hernandez, after all these years, we finally know what dark secret you had locked in your heart,\u201d Stan Patz said. \u201cI will never forgive you. The god you pray to will never forgive you. You are the monster in your nightmares.\u201d<\/p>\n
His wife, Julie Patz, wiped tears from her eyes as she witnessed the culmination of a long quest to hold someone accountable for their son\u2019s disappearance. The case affected police practices, parenting and the nation\u2019s consciousness of missing children.<\/p>\n
Hernandez, 56, didn\u2019t look at the Patzes, speak or react as he got the maximum allowable sentence: 25 years to life in prison, meaning he won\u2019t be eligible for parole until he has served the quarter-century.<\/p>\n
The lead defence lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told the court Hernandez wanted to express deep sympathy to the Patzes but also to say \u201che\u2019s an innocent man and he had nothing to do with the disappearance of Etan Patz.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hernandez was a teenager working at a convenience shop in Etan\u2019s Manhattan neighbourhood when the boy vanished in 1979, on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop.<\/p>\n
Hernandez, who\u2019s from Maple Shade, New Jersey, confessed to choking Etan. But his lawyers have said he\u2019s mentally ill and his confession was false, and they vowed to appeal his conviction.<\/p>\n
In a sign of the case\u2019s impact on the law enforcement officials and everyday people enmeshed in it, the courtroom audience Tuesday included Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., police officers who worked the case and a half-dozen ex-jurors.<\/p>\n
Etan was among the first missing children pictured on milk cartons. His case contributed to an era of fear among American families, making anxious parents more protective of kids who many once allowed to roam and play unsupervised in their neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this painful and utterly horrific real-life story, we came to realize how easily our children could disappear,\u201d said Vance, a Democrat who made a 2009 campaign promise to revisit the case if elected.<\/p>\n
The Patzes\u2019 advocacy helped to establish a national missing-children hotline and to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about such cases. The May 25 anniversary of Etan\u2019s disappearance became National Missing Children\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
Still, Stan Patz said, he and his wife had doubted they would ever find out what happened to their child because there were \u201cso many false leads, so many blind alleys. So many years went by.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow,\u201d he said after the sentencing, \u201cI know what the face of evil looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the start, Etan\u2019s case spurred a huge manhunt and an enduring, far-flung investigation. But no trace of Etan was ever found. A civil court declared him dead in 2001.<\/p>\n
Hernandez didn\u2019t become a suspect until police got a 2012 tip that he\u2019d made remarks years earlier about having killed a child in New York.<\/p>\n
Hernandez then confessed to police, saying he\u2019d lured Etan into the store\u2019s basement by promising a soda and choked him because \u201csomething just took over me.\u201d He said he put Etan, still alive, in a box and left it with curbside trash.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m being honest. I feel bad what I did,\u201d Hernandez said in a recorded statement.<\/p>\n
His lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness that makes him confuse reality with imagination. He also has a very low IQ.<\/p>\n
The defence pointed to another suspect, a convicted child molester whom some investigators and prosecutors \u2014 and even Etan\u2019s parents \u2014 pursued for years. That man made incriminating statements years ago about Etan but denied killing him and has since insisted he wasn\u2019t involved in the boy\u2019s disappearance. He was never charged.<\/p>\n
Hernandez\u2019s February conviction came in a retrial. His first trial ended in a jury deadlock in 2015.<\/p>\n
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said Tuesday he\u2019d found prosecutors\u2019 case against Hernandez compelling. Hernandez, he said, \u201ckept a terrible secret for 33 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
By:\u00a0COLLEEN LONG AND JENNIFER PELTZ<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0globeandmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"