Defense rests, doesn't call accused in Etan Patz murder case
NEW YORK -- A second former inmate testified for the defense Monday in the murder trial of Pedro Hernandez, the man accused of killing 6-year-old New York City boy Etan Patz nearly 36 years ago, CBS New York reported.
According to the station, ex-con Jack Colbert, who shared a prison cell twice with Jose Ramos, testified that Ramos, a convicted pedophile, told him he knew Etan, knew where he caught the school bus and was afraid of being prosecuted in the case.
Ramos was never charged in Etan's 1979 disappearance, but he was considered the prime suspect for decades.
Colbert, the defense's final witness, described Ramos as sometimes becoming unhinged with anger wanting to kill federal prosecutor Stuart GraBois, who got him locked up for molesting a child in Pennsylvania and suspected him in the Etan Patz case.
On cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Penelope Brady focused on Ramos' disconnected ramblings, reminding Colbert that he'd also quoted Ramos as spouting multiple theories of what happened to Etan, including that the boy's parents killed him, a cop did it or he will show up alive one day.
Colbert said Ramos never told him he killed Etan, CBS New York reported.
Last week, Jeffrey Rothschild, another jailhouse informant for the defense, testified that Ramos admitted to hims that he molested Etan and knew the boy was dead.
The defense hopes to plant reasonable doubt in jurors' minds about the guilt of Hernandez, who confessed to police in 2012 that he offered Etan a soda to entice him into the basement of the SoHo bodega where he worked. Then, Hernandez said, he choked the boy and dumped him in a box with some curbside trash.
Etan disappeared while walking to the school bus stop. His body has never been found.
Defense lawyers say Hernandez's confession is fiction, dreamed up by a mentally ill man with a low IQ and a history of hallucinations, and fueled by more than six hours of police questioning before Hernandez was read his rights.