Etan Patz’s accused killer, Pedro Hernandez, was too dimwitted to invoke his right to silence during the police interrogation that culminated with his videotaped confession, a forensic psychologist testified Tuesday.
“What is your opinion about Mr. Hernandez’s ability to make a knowing and intelligent waiver of his rights when he was being questioned?” defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein asked the psychologist at a Manhattan court hearing.
The defense expert, Dr. Bruce Frumkin, replied, “Although he’s able to make an intelligent use of right to counsel, he’s unable to make an intelligent use of right to silence.
“He did not know based upon his responses he could invoke his rights at any time,” Frumkin added.
Frumkin, who spent over nine hours evaluating Hernandez in June 2013, said the former bodega worker has an IQ below 70 and an intelligence level below 99 percent of other men his age.
“He’s very deficient compared to other people,” said the doctor, who has conducted more than 700 Miranda waiver evaluations.
But during cross-examination, lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon played a damning video of Hernandez being interviewed by a court-appointed psychologist.
On the video, Hernandez is seen perfectly rattling off the Miranda warnings by heart.
The doctor asks how long he’s been aware of these rights.
“I’ve always been aware of that,” Hernandez answers.
The hearing is supposed to determine whether Hernandez’s May 2012 videotaped confession – the only known evidence linking him to the crime – will be tossed because his Miranda warnings weren’t properly administered or he didn’t have the intellectual capacity to understand them.
The diagnosed schizophrenic told cops he lured the 6-year-old boy into the deli with a soda, strangled him, put his body in a box and left it on the street.
The defense has argued that cops used subtle psychological coercion during a nearly 7-hour interrogation to coax a false confession.
Patz vanished on a Soho street corner May 25, 1979, the first day he walked alone to his school bus stop.
The tragic case became iconic for missing children, and Patz became the first missing child to appear on a milk carton.