FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2012, file photo, Pedro Hernandez appears in Manhattan criminal court in New York where his trial as a suspect in the 1979 kidnapping and slaying of six-year-old Etan Patz ended after 18 days of deliberations with the jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of guilt. On Monday Aug. 3, 2015 a judge in New York City scheduled jury selection in retrial of Hernandez for Feb. 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, Pool, File) (The Associated Press)
NEW YORK – The retrial of a suspect in the 1979 kidnapping and slaying of Etan Patz (AY'-tahn payts) in New York City has been scheduled for early next year.
A judge on Monday scheduled jury selection in the case for Feb. 22.
A previous trial lasted for months. It ended in May after 18 days of deliberations with the jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of guilt.
Six-year-old Etan vanished after leaving his family's SoHo apartment to walk to the bus. The disappearance helped galvanize the modern-day missing-children's movement with his picture appearing on a milk carton.
Defendant Pedro Hernandez, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, confessed in 2012, more than three decades after the boy disappeared. But his lawyers argued he was mentally ill and his statements were fictional ravings.
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