Prosecutors: Conviction in Etan Patz case was proper

NEW YORK – Prosecutors say a defendant’s murder conviction in a retrial over the disappearance and death of 6-year-old Etan Patz (AY’-tahn payts) in 1979 was the result of methodical deliberations by a New York City jury that was not improperly influenced.

Assistant District Attorney James Vinocur said in court papers Wednesday that Pedro Hernandez had a fair trial.

Vinocur was responding to a request to throw out the verdict by Hernandez’s attorney Alice Fontier. She says the new jury knew that members of the first jury attended the trial and sat with the Patz family. She says that improperly influenced them.

Hernandez was convicted Feb. 14 of murder. The first trial ended in a mistrial.

Vinocur says there was no improper conduct.