'You are the monster in your dreams': Etan Patz's parents watch as his murderer is jailed for 25 years for slaying the six-year-old as he walked to the school bus in 1979
- Pedro Hernandez was jailed for 25 years to life in Manhattan on Tuesday
- He was convicted of murdering Etan Patz in May 1979 earlier this year
- Etan was six when he disappeared while walking to the school bus in Manhattan
- The case went unsolved for decades until Hernandez's arrest in 2012
- He confessed to luring Etan into the bodega where he was working where he said he choked him
- The man's lawyers now claim he is innocent and that he is mentally ill
Etan Patz's murderer was jailed for 25 years on Tuesday, almost 38 years after the six-year-old vanished on his way to the school bus.
Pedro Hernandez, 56, was sentenced in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon at a hearing attended by the slain schoolboy's parents.
He was a teenage convenience store worker in May 1979 when Etan vanished on his way to the school bus. It was the first time the six-year-old was allowed to make the walk alone.
Despite confessing to luring Etan in to the bodega where he worked by promising him soda and choking him in 2012, Hernandez's lawyers maintain that he is innocent and that he only made the confession because he is mentally ill and cannot tell reality from fantasy.
He was found guilty of killing the boy in February in a retrial after his first trial in 2015 ended in deadlock.
Hernandez gave no reaction as his sentence was handed down on Tuesday. Etan's parents Julie and Stan were there for the hearing and gave a searing message to their son's murderer.
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Pedro Hernandez (left in 2012 ) was jailed for 25 years on Tuesday for the 1979 murder of six-year-old Etan Patz
The jury in the Patz trial was shown this photo of what the bodega near the boy's home in Soho looked like in 1979. On the day of his disappearance, his mother said he was headed there with $1 to buy a soda before getting the bus to school
'Pedro Hernandez, after all these years we finally know what dark secret you had locked in your heart.
'You took our precious child and threw him in the garbage. I will never forgive you.
'The god you pray to will never forgive you. You are the monster in your nightmares, and you'll join your father in hell,' the boy's father Stan said, staring at his son's killer in court.
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At a press conference afterwards, he dismissed the defense team's claim Hernandez was innocent.
'After his first confession, this man was enormously relieved to get this off his chest. The burden was lifted and the floodgates opened and he confessed over and over again so whatever he says now means nothing.'
He said he was not surprised Hernandez showed no remorse, saying he believed he 'did not share normal emotions like the rest of us.'
Etan's parents Julie and Stan were present at the hearing in Manhattan's Supreme Court
Mr Patz spoke directly to the boy's killer in court, telling him he would 'never forgive' him
'You took our precious boy and threw him in the garbage,' Mr Patz told his son's killer. At a press conference later, he said he was 'glad' the ordeal was over
Etan's mother Julie (center in a patterned dress) did not attend the press conference
'I'm just glad we're at the end of this road,' Mr Patz concluded.
Hernandez, who is from Puerto Rico but moved to the US as a teenager with his family, was working at a convenience store near where Etan lived with his parents in Manhattan's SoHo areas when he disappeared in 1979.
Etan's disappearance spread across the country after he had his face plastered on the side of milk cartons by police
Etan was meant to walk from his home at 113 Prince Street to the school bus stop two blocks away on West Broadway and Prince Street but he never got on the bus.
The bodega was located at the corner of West Broadway and Prince and was where Etan bought soda every day.
On the day of his disappearance, his mother said he was headed there with $1 to buy a soda before getting the bus to school.
His disappearance sparked a nationwide manhunt and he became one of the first missing children to have his photograph splashed across milk cartons by the police.
His parents helped establish a missing children's hotline and the anniversary of his disappearance is marked by National Missing Children's Day.
Despite frantic search for him, Etan has never been found and inquiries into his vanishing ran cold for decades.
In 2012, the New York Police Department received an anonymous tip that Hernandez, by then living in New Jersey, had made comments about killing a boy years earlier.
He was brought in for questioning and confessed to murdering the boy, telling detectives: 'Something came over me.'
He said he put Etan in a box and left it with curbside trash. 'I'm being honest. I feel bad what I did,' he said later in a recorded statement.
Etan's father and his younger brother Ari stand on the balcony of the apartment in 1985 (left), six years after he vanished. His parents are seen on the same spot (right) in 1980
After receiving an anonymous tip in 2012, police called Hernandez in for questioning. During a taped police interview later, (above), he confessed to strangling Etan in the basement of the bodega after luring him in to the store with soda
Hernandez's 2012 confession breathed new life into the decades-old case. Crime scene investigators were seen scouring the building where the bodega was as a result of it
Despite making several confessions to authorities later, a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict after a lengthy 2015 trial and a mistrial was declared.
Among the compelling evidence from the defense was claims by Hernandez's lawyers that the confessions were the product of his mental illness.
They said he had a history of hallucinations, could not tell between reality and fantasy and that he had a low IQ.
Fellow bodega workers also cast doubt on his version of events, telling the jury there was no way he would have had access to the basement.
A second trial began in October last year and ended with his conviction in February this year.
Hernandez confessed to luring Etan into the bodega where he worked and killing him in the basement in 2012. He is pictured above in an initial court hearing after making the confession
His lawyers said they would appeal the verdict immediately based on Hernandez's low IQ and another suspect, a pedophile who was connected to the Patz family but was never charged.
That man made incriminating statements to authorities years ago about Etan but denied killing him and has since insisted he wasn't involved in the boy's disappearance. He was never charged.
On Tuesday, Hernandez's lawyer maintained his innocence on his behalf.
City officials celebrated Hernandez's conviction in February, saying it brought an end to the case which had 'haunted' families around the country.
'The disappearance of Etan Patz haunted families in New York and across the country for nearly four decades.
'Etan's legacy will endure through his family's long history of advocacy on missing children.
'Thanks to all of those who never forgot about Etan or relented in their efforts to find his killer, this case will no longer be remembered as one of the City's oldest and most painful unsolved crimes,' Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said at the time.
Hernandez's lawyer Harvey Fishbein maintained his innocence at the sentencing hearing and said he still planned to appeal the conviction
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