A new trial for 54-year-old Pedro Hernandez, who previously confessed to strangling 6-year-old Etan Patz, is set to begin in 2016.
Judge Maxwell Wiley told the suspect that a new jury would be picked, as early as December, in order to hear the kidnapping and murder case in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, according to Reuters. Hernandez's previous trial was declared a mistrial due to a hung jury.
Seven of the jurors from the original trial went to the court to hear Wiley's decision, including Adam Sirois, the holdout who prevented the conviction in the previous trial, reported Yahoo News.
"I wanted to see what happened today," said Sirois. He also stated that it will be difficult for the suspect to receive a fair and impartial trial in New York.
Another former juror, Jennifer O'Connor, who was among the 11 jurors who voted to convict Hernandez in the previous trial, stated her disappointment over the previous mistrial, according to Reuters. "We are very frustrated and disheartened still," she said. "We're here supporting the new DA and his team."
Stan Patz, the father of the victim (who vanished in 1979 and was declared legally dead in 2001), said that the family is "frustrated and very disappointed" by the jury's previous inability to reach a proper verdict, according to Yahoo News.
Hernandez was questioned by investigators in 2012 after receiving a tip from a family member, who said Hernandez confessed to the crime while at a prayer group in the 1980s.
