NEW YORK – Jurors in New York City have finished hearing evidence in the case against Pedro Hernandez, who is charged with murder in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz (AY'-tahn PAYTS).
Hernandez confessed in 2012 to choking the boy in a convenience store basement. His attorneys say the confession is fiction and Hernandez is mentally ill.
The Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident was a teenage stock clerk working at the Manhattan corner store where Etan was headed on the day he vanished. His body was never found.
Jurors heard testimony from Etan's mother.
Members of a prayer circle said Hernandez told them in the early 1980s that he had abused and killed a child in New York.
Jurors also heard from investigators who believed another man was the killer.
Summations begin Monday.
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