NEW YORK – The suspected killer of eight-year-old hassidic boy Leiby Kletzky is
fit to stand trial, according to the results of a psychological exam presented
on Thursday.
A team of experts told a court in New York City that
35-year-old Levi Aron was mentally sound to face charges of kidnapping and first
degree murder.
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boyAron’s lawyer, Pierre Bazile, said the evaluation merely
permitted court procedures to continue and that the defense team may still claim
insanity.
“He understands the nature of the charges and the proceedings
and can assist in his defense,” Bazile said after the hearing. “It is not a
rendering on sanity or insanity.”
Kletzky went missing on July 11 while
walking home from a day camp held at his school, Yeshiva Boyan Tiferes Mordechai
Shlomo, in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood. Police and up to 5,000
volunteers launched a massive search for the boy, coordinated by the Brooklyn
South Shomrim volunteer civilian patrol organization, joined in a block-by-block
search for him, including Jews from the local community and from as far away as
Queens, the Catskills, Monsey and Boston Kletzky had begged his parents to let
him walk home from the camp. His mother had waited for him at a predetermined
point a few blocks away at 50th Street and 13th Avenue. The boy missed a turn
upon leaving camp and headed in the wrong direction.
Parts of his
dismembered body were found in the refrigerator of the suspect’s home on July
13.
According to the indictment, Aron abducted the boy who he happened to
meet outside a dentist’s office. He is believed to have killed and dismembered
the boy in order to hide the evidence.
The suspect has pleaded not guilty
to the charges.