Deceased/Not Found NY - Etan Patz, 6, New York, 25 May 1979 #2 *P. Hernandez guilty*

[gregjrichards]

"Jurors in the trial of the man accused of killing Etan Patz are expected to begin hearing the defense's case today.

The jury has already seen video of the confession Pedro Hernandez made to police in 2012.

But his attorneys say the confession is false because Hernandez has a low IQ and suffers from mental illness.

They also say his stories about Etan's murder have been inconsistent."

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2015/03/9/defense-presents-case-in-etan-patz-trial-.html

 

[gregjrichards]

"The daughter of a man on trial for murder in the 1979 disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz testified Monday about her father's unusual behavior in an effort to show that he is mentally ill.

Becky Hernandez, speaking publicly for the first time about the murder case against her father, Pedro Hernandez, said she wasn't allowed out with friends as a youngster unless she had a written invitation and two weeks' notice — and her father held her hand crossing the street until she was 14.

The 25-year-old described how he would clean their Maple Shade, New Jersey, home profusely, the court heard, and cook dinner starting at 2 a.m. — the same food every night: chicken, rice and beans.

She said the case has caused a huge strain on her life - preventing her from getting a masters degree because the looming criminal proceedings meant 'she couldn't concentrate'."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rial-1979-missing-boy-case.html#ixzz3Tw4GjowJ

 

[epiphany]

<snip>

He was such an overprotective father, she said, that long after she became a teenager he would hold her hand when she crossed a street and accompanied her to her classes every day, even after she started college, waiting in a car outside until she was done.

She said Mr. Hernandez, with whom she lived from 2008 through 2012, tried to control every detail of her life. He required her friends to make requests in writing two weeks in advance to see her and would not let her go unchaperoned to a shopping mall.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/n...ad-hallucinations-his-daughter-says.html?_r=0

 

[epiphany]

<snip>

&#8220;Is he still controlling you?&#8221; Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon asked.

&#8220;It&#8217;s not control,&#8221; Ms. Hernandez said. &#8220;He&#8217;s just advising me, and the way it comes out it sounds like it, but I know it&#8217;s not.&#8221;

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/n...ad-hallucinations-his-daughter-says.html?_r=0

 

[epiphany]

Renowned Psychiatrist: Etan Patz Defendant Is Mentally Ill

<snip>

First said he spoke to Hernandez and his wife, Rosemary, about violent episodes that occurred when Hernandez was using cocaine, which occurred on and off for 20 years.

<snip>

Judge Maxwell Wiley has limited what jurors may hear regarding Hernandez's drug abuse and violence toward his wife and daughter.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/renowned-psychiatrist-etan-patz-defendant-mentally-ill-29531200

 

[cvillemegan]

So, dumb question...is the trial convening every weekday? I have been trying to follow news coverage since it started, but it seems like there haven't been that many witnesses called, a month into it. I know the prosecution rested. I guess I expected with a case this big that some news site would have a "here's what happened today" story every day, even if nothing very exciting happened. The coverage I find when I search Google news seems very sporadic.

 

[gregjrichards]

So, dumb question...is the trial convening every weekday? I have been trying to follow news coverage since it started, but it seems like there haven't been that many witnesses called, a month into it. I know the prosecution rested. I guess I expected with a case this big that some news site would have a "here's what happened today" story every day, even if nothing very exciting happened. The coverage I find when I search Google news seems very sporadic.

I don't think the case is on every weekday only certain days of the week.

 

[epiphany]

<snip>

A judge ruled Tuesday that Pedro Hernandez's drug and domestic abuse are admissable, bombshell evidence that the accused murderer's defense team wanted to keep from jurors.

<snip>

The revelation came from a defense witness, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael First, who said the cocaine use was sufficient to cause psychotic symptoms. That could sow doubts in the minds of jurors about the defense's chief argument, that mental illness caused Hernandez to hallucinate that he killed Etan Patz.

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/manhattan/ne...n-patz-s-murder-had-costly-cocaine-habit.html

 

[epiphany]

<snip>

Initially, before he was held in jail, he told the psychiatrist, "I know I did it." But by his third examination, after two months on Rikers Island, he claimed 15 people - some in white gowns - watched him strangle a child.

The prosecution will continue cross-examining First Thursday morning.

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/manhattan/ne...n-patz-s-murder-had-costly-cocaine-habit.html

 

[epiphany]

<snip>

During cross-examination, First admitted that people with schizotypal personality disorder are capable of committing murder, and was asked by prosecutor Penelope Brady if Hernandez claimed to have killed any visions aside from Etan.

"No," he said.

Just Etan? she asked. "Yes," he answered.

http://www.newsday.com/news/new-yor...d-etan-patz-psychiatrist-testifies-1.10041745

 

[epiphany]

DSM Criteria for Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD)

Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD) is listed in the American Psychiatric Association&#8217;s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM) as a Cluster A (odd or eccentric) Personality Disorder.

A pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for close relationships, as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

Ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference).
Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g., superstitiousness, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy, or "sixth sense"; in children and adolescents, bizarre fantasies or preoccupations).
Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions.
Odd thinking and speech (e.g., vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, over elaborate, or stereotyped).
Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation.
Inappropriate or constricted affect.
Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar.
Lack of close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives
Social anxiety that tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self.

http://outofthefog.net/Disorders/STPD.html#DSMCriteria

 

[epiphany]

<snip>

Schizotypal personality vs. schizophrenia

Schizotypal personality disorder can easily be confused with schizophrenia, a severe mental illness in which people lose contact with reality (psychosis). While people with schizotypal personalities may experience brief psychotic episodes with delusions or hallucinations, they are not as frequent, prolonged or intense as in schizophrenia.

Another key distinction between schizotypal personality disorder and schizophrenia is that people with the personality disorder usually can be made aware of the difference between their distorted ideas and reality. Those with schizophrenia generally can't be swayed away from their delusions.

Despite the differences, schizotypal personality disorder can benefit from similar treatments as schizophrenia and is sometimes considered a variant of schizophrenia.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-...onality-disorder/basics/symptoms/con-20027949

 

[dotr]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...n-patz-trial-seeks-mistrial-article-1.2147514


"Lawyer of suspected killer in Etan Patz trial calls for mistrial"

" On cross-examination of Dr. Michael First, the prosecutor raised the prospect of whether Becky Hernandez, the defendant&#8217;s 25-year-old daughter, knew about her father&#8217;s past drug habit.

But Becky Hernandez, the first defense witness who was called Monday, had not been allowed to discuss that issue under Wiley&#8217;s past instruction.

An objection was sustained, and First did not respond, but the idea that Becky Hernandez was hiding the truth was planted in the jurors&#8217; minds, defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein said.

&#8220;Judge, this is a mistrial!&#8221; he fumed after the jury was excused for a break.

&#8220;This defense was sabotaged by this court&#8217;s ruling,&#8221; a fired-up Fishbein added"

 

[gregjrichards]

"A convicted pedophile once considered a suspect in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz asked a judge Friday for protection from inmates at a Brooklyn jail.

Jose Ramos is being held in the Brooklyn House of Detention during the weeks-long trial of Pedro Hernandez, who confessed in 2012 to killing Etan. Mr. Ramos, who is currently serving a prison sentence on unrelated charges in Pennsylvania, was moved to Brooklyn in case he needs to be called as a witness during Mr. Hernandez&#8217;s murder trial.

On Friday, Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley granted him a protective order after hearing from attorney Frank Rothman that Mr. Ramos was being subjected to harassment within the jail.

&#8220;He&#8217;s getting harassed,&#8221; Mr. Rothman said outside the court, because of news reports of Mr. Ramos&#8217; pedophilia and possible involvement in Etan&#8217;s disappearance and death."

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/201...n-patz-case-gets-protection-in-brooklyn-jail/

 

[eileenhawkeye]

This is a very historical case. I'm surprised more people aren't following it here at WS. I expected more updates

I feel like Etan&#8217;s case is famous due to mostly symbolic reasons---first child on a milk carton, biggest missing person case in NYC, one of the first high-profile missing child cases, National Missing Child Day is the day Etan went missing, etc. The case was revived around 2009 with the 30th anniversary and the arrest a few years later, but I am pretty certain that the case was extremely quiet in the media and online for many, many years prior to that. (For instance, there were only nine posts on WS from 2003-2009 regarding the case). That explains to me why there has been a lot of national coverage in the past few years, but "only" about 1500 posts on the two threads combined since '09.

 

[gregjrichards]

"The man accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 is mentally ill and has a long history of hallucinating, a psychologist testified Monday at Pedro Hernandez’s murder trial.

Virginia Barber testified for the defense that Hernandez has schizotypal personality disorder, WCBS 880’s Irene Cornell reported.

Barber described the peculiar perceptual experiences that Hernandez had since he was a teenager, seeing ghosts in the room, a lady in white sent to protect him and a man with tattoos who scared him. Hernandez’s paranoia, Barber said, led him to cover and tape his windows so neighbors couldn’t see him."

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/03...ies-alleged-etan-patz-killer-is-mentally-ill/

New article.

 

[gregjrichards]

"Defence lawyers in the Etan Patz murder trial Monday asked to put a banana box filled with 50 pounds of potatoes into evidence so jurors can test defendant Pedro Hernandez's claim in his purported confession about how he disposed of the 6-year-old's body.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley earlier let prosecutors show jurors a picture of a 48-pound boy squeezing into a banana box, but said he wants a day to decide whether to let the defense put on a similar display, which prosecutors angrily denounced.

"Carrying a body is vastly different from carrying potatoes," argued prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, who said Etan was less than 50 pounds, and threatened to offer a 45-pound doll with arms and legs to counter the spuds. "The weight distribution of potatoes is vastly different."

http://www.newsday.com/news/new-yor...lled-with-potatoes-to-make-a-point-1.10067619

 

[cvillemegan]

The more I read about the trial, the more I doubt the jury's going to convict Hernandez. I'm sure lots of 112-lb guys can carry 50 pounds on one shoulder, but it's another thing that introduces doubt into the case. Why put the box on his shoulder if he could carry it in front of him with both hands?

 

[luckyseven]

Unearthed 1970s NYC Photo Shows Etan Patz On Houston Street

The murder trial in the case of Etan Patz is still going on after being reopened nearly 35 years after the 6-year-old disappeared near his family's Prince Street home.

While it's of no interest to the case, photographer Carrie Boretz recently came across a photo taken four years before his disappearance, in the summer of 1975&#8212;it shows a typical street scene from the time, with Patz happily staring directly at the camera from his stroller. The photo was taken on Houston Street, near LaGuardia Place, and also shows his mother Julie, pushing the stroller.

 

[dotr]

Unearthed 1970s NYC Photo Shows Etan Patz On Houston Street

Such a nice, happy and natural picture, such a shame some sick loser had to destroy the innocence. imo.