Holdout Juror in Etan Patz Trial Explains Himself

'I just couldn't get there,' says Adam Sirois
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 9, 2015 9:41 AM CDT
Holdout Juror in Etan Patz Trial Explains Himself
Surrounded by fellow jurors, Adam Sirois, the holdout juror in the Etan Patz trial, listens during a press conference.   (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Eleven jurors voted to convict Pedro Hernandez in the 1979 murder of young Etan Patz, but the judge had to declare a mistrial yesterday because the 12th couldn't be swayed. “Ultimately I couldn’t find enough evidence that wasn’t circumstantial to convict,” explains 42-year-old Adam Sirois. "I just couldn't get there." In a post-trial news conference, Sirois ticked off a number of concerns, including the possibility that longtime suspect Jose Ramos killed Etan, but his biggest issue seemed to be the possibility that a mentally unstable Hernandez was coerced into a confession.

“For me, his confession was very bizarre,” says Sirois. “No matter how many times it happened, it got more and more bizarre.” In its recap, the New York Times detects "no rancor" among the other jurors toward Sirois, but the Daily News found a different sentiment at a later jurors' dinner to which he wasn't invited. "We never want to see him again," says juror Chris Gillberti. "He was delusional. He was totally irrational about everything." Prosecutors are expected to try again in a new trial. (More Etan Patz stories.)

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