Jury Selection Begins In Retrial Of Man Accused Of Murdering 6-Year-Old Etan Patz

These are the crime stories making headlines today, October 21, 2016 …

• Jury selection has begun in the retrial of Pedro Hernandez, the man accused of murdering six-year-old Etan Patz (above), who disappeared from Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in 1979. Hernandez, 55, was tried in Patz’s death last year, but it ended in a mistrial after the jury became deadlocked. Charges were filed against Hernandez in 2012, when he allegedly confessed that he lured Patz to the bodega where he worked before killing him in the store’s basement and disposing of his remains in a dumpster. The case continues in Manhattan Supreme Court. [People]
• A Long Beach, California, police officer shot and wounded a man who had cut his own throat Thursday evening, police say. Officers were dispatched at about 9:30 P.M. following a report of an intoxicated man attempting to enter the front door of a residence in Naples, according to the Long Beach Police Department. An officer arrived at the location and confronted the man, “who was cutting his own throat with a knife,” a police statement said. The officer tried to negotiate with the man, but he advanced and the officer fired. The suspect was taken to the hospital, where he is reportedly in critical but stable condition. [ABC 7]
• An Indiana judge has admitted his decision to deny a warrant request had “the most tragic result possible” after a man accused of stalking his wife allegedly stabbed her to death. Police found Anthony Russell, 51, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on October 7 and then found his estranged wife Laura Russell, 44, dead of multiple stab wounds in her home. A few days earlier, prosecutors requested a warrant be issued for Anthony Russell’s arrest on felony charges that he stalked the woman and violated a no-contact order. But Jefferson County Superior Court judge Michael Hensley denied the request, and instead ordered the defendant to appear in court after a three-day weekend. [CBS News]

McDonald’s fast food [Wikimedia Commons]

• A McDonald’s manager who pulled down a woman’s sweatpants and exposed her bottom in front of customers “for a joke” has been sentenced to 28 days behind bars. Stuart Hubbard, 26, who manages a branch of the fast food chain in Nottingham, England, admitted that he pulled down the woman’s pants in front of five members of the staff and 12 customers in the early morning hours of February 18. The unnamed victim said she was “totally humiliated” following the incident. Hubbard pleaded guilty to common assault. [DailyMail.com]
• A man in Dunedin, New Zealand, has been found guilty of beating his work supervisor to death with a hammer. A jury found that James William Merritt killed Karin Ann Ross, 51, in the early morning hours of December 2, 2015 at Spotless Cleaning Services. Ross and Merritt had had several disputes that led up to the hammer attack over the fact that Merritt had been parking his car in a disabled space, and the fact that Ross had criticized his window cleaning. [New Zealand Herald]

• Laura A. Fraley [Washington County Jail]

  A Hartford, New York, woman faces numerous charges after she allegedly bludgeoned her husband 7 to 10 times with a wooden plaque with a picture of Jesus Christ on it, then threatened police with a tree branch. State troopers responded to the home of Laura A. Fraley, 51, on Saturday afternoon after her husband fled the scene and called 911, police say. When police arrived, they found Fraley waving an eight-foot tree branch. She refused to drop it and was shot by a Taser — but still continued to fight until police took her into custody. The argument allegedly began because Fraley wanted her husband to convert to the Mormon church. [The Post-Star]
• A University of Missouri fraternity that has already been suspended for possible racial problems is under investigation for allegedly giving pledges date-rape drugs for use on female students. A Mizzou spokeswoman confirms that the Delta Upsilon fraternity is being investigated for allegedly serving alcohol to underage students, hazing pledges, and potentially using date-rape drugs, according to documents obtained by Fox 2. In a letter to the fraternity from the Office for Civil Rights and Title IX Assistant Vice Chancellor Ellen Eardley wrote, “Active members of delta upsilon fraternity allegedly provided each new member with three pills and instructed them to drug women for the purpose of incapacitating them prior to engaging in sexual activity.” [Fox 2 Now]

• The FBI’s Operation Cross Country has concluded with the recovery of 82 sexually exploited juveniles and the arrests of 239 pimps. Operation Cross Country is an annual event that focuses on recovering underage victims of prostitution and highlighting the issue of sex trafficking at home and abroad. The operation has expanded to become an international event, with Canada, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand joining the FBI and its local, state, and federal law enforcement partners — along with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) — during the coordinated three-day operation that ended October 16. [FBI]

Main photo: Etan Patz photographed in 1978 [Wikimedia Commons]