The Latest: Abducted boy’s mother: Killer made ‘bad choices’

MINNEAPOLIS – The Latest on the man who confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing an 11-year-old Minnesota boy in 1989 (all times local):

5:10 p.m.

The mother of Jacob Wetterling says the Minnesota man who confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing her 11-year-old son in 1989 made “really bad choices.”

Patty Wetterling and her husband, Jerry, of St. Joseph issued a statement Friday after an attorney for Danny Heinrich said his client has shed “countless tears” for Jacob and his family in the 27 years since his death.

Patty Wetterling says for Heinrich to say he never had any intention to commit the crime is “ludicrous.” And she says while Heinrich may have “shed countless tears,” he shed no tears “when he stood in the courtroom telling us what he did to Jacob.”

Heinrich will be sentenced Monday on a child pornography charge that stemmed from the investigation into Jacob’s disappearance. The plea deal calls for a 20-year sentence.

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11:20 a.m.

The lawyer for the man who confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling says his client has shed “countless tears” for Jacob and his family in the 27 years since his death.

Danny Heinrich will be sentenced Monday on a child pornography charge that stemmed from the investigation into Jacob’s disappearance. As part of his plea deal, Heinrich confessed to killing the St. Joseph boy, and prosecutors agreed not to charge him with murder. The plea deal calls for a 20-year sentence.

In a memo filed Thursday, defence attorney Reynaldo Aligada says nobody should feel sympathy for Heinrich. But he says Heinrich hopes to convey how sorry he feels.

Prosecutors say in their memo no sentence can ever truly reflect the “cruel, sadistic and narcissistic” character of Heinrich.

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