Murder of Leiby Kletzky
Encyclopedia
Leiby Kletzky was an American
murder victim. The Hasidic
Jewish
boy was kidnapped on Monday, July 11, 2011, as he walked home from his school day camp in the Hasidic neighborhood of Boro Park
, Brooklyn
. His dismembered
body was found in the Kensington apartment of confessed suspect Levi Aron, aged 35, and in a dumpster in another Brooklyn neighborhood, Sunset Park
, on Wednesday morning July 13.
Kletzky's disappearance sparked an all-out search by New York City police and a block-by-block search by up to 5,000 Orthodox Jewish
volunteers from New York and other states coordinated by the Brooklyn South Shomrim
volunteer civilian patrol. The alleged murderer was located early Wednesday morning after examination of videos from surveillance cameras
along the boy's route showed him meeting with a man outside a dentist's office and then apparently getting into his car. The suspect gave a 450-word handwritten confession to police after his arrest. The kidnapping and murder of the eight-year-old boy shocked the insular Brooklyn Hasidic community, whose streets are considered relatively safe. The case has drawn comparisons to the 1979 kidnapping and murder of Etan Patz
, a six-year-old SoHo
resident who was snatched while walking to his school bus for the first time.
Hasidim and residents of Boro Park. He was reported missing late Monday afternoon while walking home from a day camp held at his school, Yeshiva Boyan Tiferes Mordechai Shlomo
. Kletzky had begged his parents to let him walk home from the camp instead of taking the school bus. It was the first time that his parents allowed him to walk alone and they had practiced the route the day before; his mother 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.
Kletzky's mother called the Brooklyn South Shomrim volunteer civilian patrol to report a missing child at 6:14 p.m. Brooklyn South Shomrim, which says it receives 10 calls of missing children per day, immediately checked stores, candy stores, and homes of friends and relatives where the boy might have gone. By 8:30 p.m., Shomrim contacted the New York City Police Department, which declared a Level 1 search, something normally undertaken after a child is missing for 24 hours. The police search involved canine units
, mounted police
, and helicopters
. On Tuesday morning, Brooklyn South Shomrim, together with Shomrim organizations in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
, Flatbush
, and Williamsburg
made an all-out call for volunteers to join the search. Five thousand Orthodox Jewish volunteers from the local community and from as far away as Queens
, Long Island
, the Catskills
, Monsey
and Boston
, joined in a block-by-block search. State Assemblyman
Dov Hikind
posted a $5,000 reward for information leading to the return of the child, which was eventually upped to $100,000 by members of the community.
Meanwhile, Yaakov German, a Bobover Hasid and father of Kletzky's yeshiva rebbi, went door-to-door on Tuesday morning with his son to examine videos from surveillance cameras posted in stores and offices along the boy's route. The videos showed that after leaving his school at 1205 44th Street, between 12th and 13th Avenues, at about 5:05 p.m., Kletzky missed his turn at 13th Avenue and continued down 44th Street. Other videos showed the boy walking by Shomrim Locksmith at 44th Street and 15th Avenue, and then along 44th Street at 17th Avenue. On 18th Avenue, the boy was seen talking to a man who then crossed the street and entered a dentist's office. When the man came out, Kletzky followed him and appeared to get into his car.
and Fifth
Avenues. Aron was taken into police custody at 2:40 a.m. Wednesday morning.
; they returned around 11:20 p.m. Aron claimed that he planned to return the boy to his family on Tuesday, but when he saw the missing child posters the next day, he said he "panicked", returned to the apartment, and smothered the boy with a towel. Then he dismembered the body and stuffed it into bags, which he placed in a suitcase and left in a dumpster in another neighborhood.
A video from the security camera at the Ateres Charna wedding hall in Rockland County
confirmed that Aron was at the wedding, but no sign is seen of Kletzky. A color surveillance video taken later that night at a Sunoco
gas station on the Palisades Interstate Parkway
showed Aron and Kletzky getting out of Aron's car and going into the bathroom. The video was time-stamped 8:15 p.m.
There was no evidence that the victim had been sexually abused. The suspect was unknown to the boy before meeting him on the street. Child abductions by strangers are extremely rare in New York State, with none of the 20,000 children who went missing in 2010 having been taken by a stranger, according to state statistics.
synagogue
was attended by thousands of Orthodox Jews, many of whom traveled from throughout the Tri-State area to attend. Attendance was estimated at 8,000 by the Shomrim civilian patrol, and 10,000 by Arutz Sheva
.
, a divorced mother of two whom he had met online and with whom he moved to Memphis, where he worked as a security guard. Both marriages ended in divorce.
Aron worked as a clerk at a hardware-supply company in Brooklyn. He was described by his coworkers as quiet and socially awkward. Aron had injured his head when he was hit by a car while riding his bike at the age of 9 and suffered problems stemming from that accident. It is believed that this caused extreme shyness and neurotic behaviors with Aron in later life. He had no prior arrest record. He had been served with an Order of Protection in January 2007 and had received a fine for a seat belt violation and one speeding ticket. In Brooklyn, authorities cited a summons for public urination.
for a psychiatric evaluation
.
After Aron had been hospitalized, his lawyers stated that he "is seeking to quiet the voices in his head by listening to music". They also described his demeanor as "abnormal".
(a muscle relaxant
), quetiapine
(an antipsychotic
), and hydrocodone
and acetaminophen
(two analgesic
s), followed by smothering. Upon release of the autopsy results, the case was officially ruled a homicide
.
On 9 August, the New York City medical examiner's office revealed that Kletzky had ingested a fifth drug, Duloxetine
, which is used for generalized anxiety disorder and as an antidepressant
. The blood tests revealing this drug took a few weeks to process at an outside lab.
indicted Aron on eight counts of murder and kidnapping – including two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, and one count of second-degree kidnapping – which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
The case is being prosecuted by the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office. The lead prosecutor is veteran Assistant District Attorney Julie B. Rendelman of the Homicide Bureau. Ms. Rendelman was the attorney who successfully prosecuted Horace Moore for the stabbing murder of NYC bus driver Edwin Thomas
. Also assigned to the case is Assistant District Attorney Linda Weinman, who is experienced in crimes against children.
A day after the indictment was handed down, one of Aron's lawyers, Gerard Marrone, resigned from the case, saying that he could not represent the defendant as "the allegations were too horrific". Attorney Jennifer McCann joined Pierre Bazile for the defense.
at the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on 4 August.
Results of the psychiatric evaluation, obtained by Associated Press
, indicate that Aron was diagnosed with an adjustment disorder
. The suspect was said to be "confused and apathetic", with a "'practically blank' personality". Details also emerged that Aron had a younger sister who died while institutionalized for schizophrenia
.
Aron is being held at Rikers Island
on round-the-clock suicide watch
. He gave his first media interview to the New York Post
on 12 August. He did not refer to Kletzky by name, and kept referring to the smothering and dismembering of the boy as "the incident". He did not explain why he took and kept the boy, saying, "He looked familiar. I thought I knew him".
On 23 August, the State Supreme Court justice assigned to the case, Justice Neil J. Firetog, chided Aron's lawyers in court for discussing the case on their Facebook
pages, accused them of leaking the court-ordered psychological examination to the press, and questioned their ability to handle such a complex case given their lack of experience. Pierre Bazile, who passed the bar in 2007, has defended only one homicide case, while Jennifer McCann has defended six cases, three of them ending in acquittal. A veteran criminal defense laywer, Howard Greenberg, subsequently joined the defense team pro bono to offset the judge's criticism of lack of experience.
or The Bronx
in light of unfavorable media coverage in Brooklyn. However, it will allow the defense to re-apply for a change of venue
after the jury pool is questioned.
and Peter Abbate
and State Senator
Diane Savino
said they would introduce a bill called "Leiby's Initiative", which would grant a $500 annual tax credit
to any New York City
property owner who installs and maintains surveillance cameras on their property.
has said he would propose "Leiby's Law," a bill under which businesses could volunteer to be designated as safe places for children who are lost or otherwise in trouble. Employees would undergo background checks and business owners would put a green sticker in their store windows so children know it's a safe place to get help.
On 16 August 2011, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced a similar program called "Safe Stop". So far, 76 stores have signed up to display a green "Safe Haven" sticker in their windows to help lost children.
released a ballad called "Leiby Forever" and a seven-minute music video showing home movies of Kletzky growing up.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
murder victim. The Hasidic
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
boy was kidnapped on Monday, July 11, 2011, as he walked home from his school day camp in the Hasidic neighborhood of Boro Park
Borough Park, Brooklyn
Borough Park , is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City in the United States....
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. His dismembered
Dismemberment
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism...
body was found in the Kensington apartment of confessed suspect Levi Aron, aged 35, and in a dumpster in another Brooklyn neighborhood, Sunset Park
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the western section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. It is bounded by Greenwood Heights to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the west...
, on Wednesday morning July 13.
Kletzky's disappearance sparked an all-out search by New York City police and a block-by-block search by up to 5,000 Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
volunteers from New York and other states coordinated by the Brooklyn South Shomrim
Shomrim (volunteers)
Shomrim are licensed organizations of volunteer Jewish civilian patrols which have been set up in Hasidic and Haredi neighborhoods in the United States and England to combat burglary, vandalism, mugging, assault, domestic violence, nuisance crimes, and antisemitic attacks. They also help locate...
volunteer civilian patrol. The alleged murderer was located early Wednesday morning after examination of videos from surveillance cameras
Closed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
along the boy's route showed him meeting with a man outside a dentist's office and then apparently getting into his car. The suspect gave a 450-word handwritten confession to police after his arrest. The kidnapping and murder of the eight-year-old boy shocked the insular Brooklyn Hasidic community, whose streets are considered relatively safe. The case has drawn comparisons to the 1979 kidnapping and murder of Etan Patz
Etan Patz
Etan Kalil Patz was a kidnapped American child. He was 6 years old when he disappeared in lower Manhattan, New York on May 25, 1979. At the time, news coverage of Patz's disappearance was made into a media circus in the New York City area. He is arguably the most famous missing child of New York...
, a six-year-old SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
resident who was snatched while walking to his school bus for the first time.
Search for missing child
Yehudah Kletzky, known as "Leiby", was the third of six children and only son of Nachman Kletzky and Esti Forster Kletzky, BoyanerBoyan (Hasidic dynasty)
Boyan is a Hasidic dynasty named after the town of Boiany in the Ukraine. The Hasidut is presently headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel, with communities in Beitar Ilit, Bnei Brak, London, Antwerp, Brooklyn, and Monsey, New York.-First Boyaner Rebbe:...
Hasidim and residents of Boro Park. He was reported missing late Monday afternoon while walking home from a day camp held at his school, Yeshiva Boyan Tiferes Mordechai Shlomo
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman , sometimes called Solomon Mordecai Friedman, was the Boyaner Rebbe of New York for over 40 years...
. Kletzky had begged his parents to let him walk home from the camp instead of taking the school bus. It was the first time that his parents allowed him to walk alone and they had practiced the route the day before; his mother 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.
Kletzky's mother called the Brooklyn South Shomrim volunteer civilian patrol to report a missing child at 6:14 p.m. Brooklyn South Shomrim, which says it receives 10 calls of missing children per day, immediately checked stores, candy stores, and homes of friends and relatives where the boy might have gone. By 8:30 p.m., Shomrim contacted the New York City Police Department, which declared a Level 1 search, something normally undertaken after a child is missing for 24 hours. The police search involved canine units
Search and rescue dog
The use of dogs in search and rescue is a valuable component in wilderness tracking, natural disasters, mass casualty events, and in locating missing people. Dedicated handlers and well-trained dogs are required for the use of dogs to be effective in search efforts...
, mounted police
Mounted police
Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and...
, and helicopters
Police aircraft
A police aircraft is an airplane, helicopter, powered paraglider, or blimpused in police operations. They are commonly used for traffic control, ground support, search and rescue, high-speed car pursuits, observation, air patrol and riot control...
. On Tuesday morning, Brooklyn South Shomrim, together with Shomrim organizations in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted extending two miles east-west.Originally, the area was known as Crow Hill....
, Flatbush
Flatbush, Brooklyn
Flatbush is a community of the Borough of Brooklyn, a part of New York City, consisting of several neighborhoods.The name Flatbush is an Anglicization of the Dutch language Vlacke bos ....
, and Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
made an all-out call for volunteers to join the search. Five thousand Orthodox Jewish volunteers from the local community and from as far away as Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, the Catskills
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
, Monsey
Monsey, New York
Monsey is a hamlet , in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the state of New Jersey; east of Suffern; south of Airmont and west of Nanuet...
and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, joined in a block-by-block search. State Assemblyman
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
Dov Hikind
Dov Hikind
Dov Hikind is an American politician in the state of New York. He is a Democratic New York State Assemblyman. Hikind is an Orthodox Jew representing Brooklyn's Assembly district 48...
posted a $5,000 reward for information leading to the return of the child, which was eventually upped to $100,000 by members of the community.
Meanwhile, Yaakov German, a Bobover Hasid and father of Kletzky's yeshiva rebbi, went door-to-door on Tuesday morning with his son to examine videos from surveillance cameras posted in stores and offices along the boy's route. The videos showed that after leaving his school at 1205 44th Street, between 12th and 13th Avenues, at about 5:05 p.m., Kletzky missed his turn at 13th Avenue and continued down 44th Street. Other videos showed the boy walking by Shomrim Locksmith at 44th Street and 15th Avenue, and then along 44th Street at 17th Avenue. On 18th Avenue, the boy was seen talking to a man who then crossed the street and entered a dentist's office. When the man came out, Kletzky followed him and appeared to get into his car.
Discovery
After examining the videos, police located the dentist, who alerted his receptionist, who gave them the name and address of the suspect who had come in to pay his bill that day. After midnight on Tuesday, police also managed to identify the car in the surveillance video as a 1990 gold Honda Accord. Forty-five minutes later, two Flatbush volunteers searching for the missing boy in Kensington spotted the car and sent in the license-plate number, which matched Aron's details. Police went to the suspect's apartment in Kensington around 2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. They arrived to an open door, and when they asked Aron where the boy was, he allegedly nodded toward the kitchen, where the police found blood-soaked carving knives and bloody towels in bags. The boy's severed feet were found in the freezer. The suspect told police where to find the rest of the remains: in a red suitcase thrown in a dumpster on 20th Street between FourthFourth Avenue (Brooklyn)
Fourth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It stretches for south from Times Plaza, which is the triangle intersection created by Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn, to Shore Road and the Belt Parkway in Bay Ridge.While southwestern Brooklyn is...
and Fifth
Fifth Avenue (Brooklyn)
Fifth Avenue is an important commercial thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.The Avenue runs south-by southwest for from its intersection with Atlantic Avenue in Fort Greene just southeast of Downtown Brooklyn through the neighborhoods of Park Slope and Sunset Park until it ends...
Avenues. Aron was taken into police custody at 2:40 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Confession
According to a 450-word statement by the suspect in which he confessed to killing the boy, Aron claimed that Kletzky had asked him for directions and accepted a ride, saying he wanted to be dropped off at a bookstore. Aron suggested that they drive together to a wedding in Monsey, New YorkMonsey, New York
Monsey is a hamlet , in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the state of New Jersey; east of Suffern; south of Airmont and west of Nanuet...
; they returned around 11:20 p.m. Aron claimed that he planned to return the boy to his family on Tuesday, but when he saw the missing child posters the next day, he said he "panicked", returned to the apartment, and smothered the boy with a towel. Then he dismembered the body and stuffed it into bags, which he placed in a suitcase and left in a dumpster in another neighborhood.
A video from the security camera at the Ateres Charna wedding hall in Rockland County
Rockland County, New York
Rockland County is a suburban county 15 miles to the northwest of Manhattan and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the southernmost county in New York west of the Hudson River, and the smallest county in New York outside of New York City. The...
confirmed that Aron was at the wedding, but no sign is seen of Kletzky. A color surveillance video taken later that night at a Sunoco
Sunoco
Sunoco Inc. is an American petroleum and petrochemical manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, formerly known as Sun Company Inc. and Sun Oil Co. ....
gas station on the Palisades Interstate Parkway
Palisades Interstate Parkway
The Palisades Interstate Parkway is a long limited-access highway in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The parkway is a major commuter route into New York City from Rockland and Orange counties in New York and Bergen County in New Jersey...
showed Aron and Kletzky getting out of Aron's car and going into the bathroom. The video was time-stamped 8:15 p.m.
There was no evidence that the victim had been sexually abused. The suspect was unknown to the boy before meeting him on the street. Child abductions by strangers are extremely rare in New York State, with none of the 20,000 children who went missing in 2010 having been taken by a stranger, according to state statistics.
Funeral
Kletzky's funeral, held on Wednesday in the parking lot of a Boro ParkBorough Park, Brooklyn
Borough Park , is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City in the United States....
synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
was attended by thousands of Orthodox Jews, many of whom traveled from throughout the Tri-State area to attend. Attendance was estimated at 8,000 by the Shomrim civilian patrol, and 10,000 by Arutz Sheva
Arutz Sheva
Arutz Sheva is an Israeli media network identifying with Religious Zionism. It offers online news in English, Hebrew, French, Spanish and Russian. Arutz Sheva offers free podcasts, live streaming radio, a daily email news update, streaming video and 24 hour updated text news...
.
Suspect profile
The alleged kidnapper and murderer, Levi Aron, is reported to be an Orthodox Jew who grew up in Brooklyn. His father works at the Hasidic-owned B&H Photo in Brooklyn; his mother died five or six years previously. Aron lived in the attic apartment of his parents' three-family home on the corner of Avenue C and East 2nd Street in the Kensington neighborhood. He was married twice; in 2004 he married Diana Diunov, an Israeli woman, and in 2007 he married Deborah M. Parnell of TennesseeTennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, a divorced mother of two whom he had met online and with whom he moved to Memphis, where he worked as a security guard. Both marriages ended in divorce.
Aron worked as a clerk at a hardware-supply company in Brooklyn. He was described by his coworkers as quiet and socially awkward. Aron had injured his head when he was hit by a car while riding his bike at the age of 9 and suffered problems stemming from that accident. It is believed that this caused extreme shyness and neurotic behaviors with Aron in later life. He had no prior arrest record. He had been served with an Order of Protection in January 2007 and had received a fine for a seat belt violation and one speeding ticket. In Brooklyn, authorities cited a summons for public urination.
Psychiatric evaluation
Aron appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Thursday, July 14, and pleaded not guilty. At the hearing, his lawyer stated that Aron "suffers from hallucinations" and "hears voices". The court ordered Aron to be sent to the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital CenterBellevue Hospital Center
Bellevue Hospital Center, most often referred to as "Bellevue", was founded on March 31, 1736 and is the oldest public hospital in the United States. Located on First Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, Bellevue is famous from many literary, film and television...
for a psychiatric evaluation
Psychological evaluation
A psychological evaluation or mental examination is an examination into a person's mental health by a mental health professional such as a psychologist. A psychological evaluation may result in a diagnosis of a mental illness...
.
After Aron had been hospitalized, his lawyers stated that he "is seeking to quiet the voices in his head by listening to music". They also described his demeanor as "abnormal".
Autopsy findings
On Wednesday, July 20, the office of the New York City medical examiner released autopsy results revealing that Kletzky had ingested a lethal mix of four different drugs and had then been smothered. The cause of death was determined to be intoxication from a combination of cyclobenzaprineCyclobenzaprine
Cyclobenzaprine is a muscle relaxant medication used to relieve skeletal muscle spasms and associated pain in acute musculoskeletal conditions. It is the most well-studied drug for this application, and it also has been used off-label for fibromyalgia treatment.- Mechanism of action :The mechanism...
(a muscle relaxant
Muscle relaxant
A muscle relaxant is a drug which affects skeletal muscle function and decreases the muscle tone. It may be used to alleviate symptoms such as muscle spasms, pain, and hyperreflexia. The term "muscle relaxant" is used to refer to two major therapeutic groups: neuromuscular blockers and spasmolytics...
), quetiapine
Quetiapine
Quetiapine , is an atypical antipsychotic approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder....
(an antipsychotic
Antipsychotic
An antipsychotic is a tranquilizing psychiatric medication primarily used to manage psychosis , particularly in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A first generation of antipsychotics, known as typical antipsychotics, was discovered in the 1950s...
), and hydrocodone
Hydrocodone
Hydrocodone or dihydrocodeinone is a semi-synthetic opioid derived from either of two naturally occurring opiates: codeine and thebaine. It is an orally active narcotic analgesic and antitussive...
and acetaminophen
Paracetamol
Paracetamol INN , or acetaminophen USAN , is a widely used over-the-counter analgesic and antipyretic . It is commonly used for the relief of headaches and other minor aches and pains and is a major ingredient in numerous cold and flu remedies...
(two analgesic
Analgesic
An analgesic is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain . The word analgesic derives from Greek an- and algos ....
s), followed by smothering. Upon release of the autopsy results, the case was officially ruled a homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
.
On 9 August, the New York City medical examiner's office revealed that Kletzky had ingested a fifth drug, Duloxetine
Duloxetine
Duloxetine is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor manufactured and marketed by Eli Lilly. It is effective for major depressive disorder and has been shown to be as effective as venlafaxine for generalized anxiety disorder...
, which is used for generalized anxiety disorder and as an antidepressant
Antidepressant
An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
. The blood tests revealing this drug took a few weeks to process at an outside lab.
Indictment
Hours after the autopsy results were released on 20 July, a Brooklyn grand juryGrand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
indicted Aron on eight counts of murder and kidnapping – including two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, and one count of second-degree kidnapping – which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
The case is being prosecuted by the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office. The lead prosecutor is veteran Assistant District Attorney Julie B. Rendelman of the Homicide Bureau. Ms. Rendelman was the attorney who successfully prosecuted Horace Moore for the stabbing murder of NYC bus driver Edwin Thomas
Edwin Thomas (bus driver)
Edwin Thomas was an American New York City bus driver who was murdered on December 1, 2008 by a passenger who became infuriated that Thomas refused to give him a free transfer because the former did not pay his fare...
. Also assigned to the case is Assistant District Attorney Linda Weinman, who is experienced in crimes against children.
A day after the indictment was handed down, one of Aron's lawyers, Gerard Marrone, resigned from the case, saying that he could not represent the defendant as "the allegations were too horrific". Attorney Jennifer McCann joined Pierre Bazile for the defense.
Arraignment
Aron was declared competent to stand trial in an arraignmentArraignment
Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal complaint in the presence of the defendant to inform the defendant of the charges against him or her. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea...
at the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on 4 August.
Results of the psychiatric evaluation, obtained by Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, indicate that Aron was diagnosed with an adjustment disorder
Adjustment disorder
Adjustment disorder is a psychological response to an identifiable stressor or group of stressors that cause significant emotional or behavioral symptoms that do not meet criteria for anxiety disorder, PTSD, or acute stress disorder...
. The suspect was said to be "confused and apathetic", with a "'practically blank' personality". Details also emerged that Aron had a younger sister who died while institutionalized for schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
.
Aron is being held at Rikers Island
Rikers Island
Rikers Island is New York City's main jail complex, as well as the name of the island on which it sits, in the East River between Queens and the mainland Bronx, adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The island itself is part of the borough of the Bronx, though it is included as part of...
on round-the-clock suicide watch
Suicide watch
Suicide watch is an intensive monitoring process used to ensure that an individual does not die by suicide. Usually the term is used in reference to inmates in a prison, hospital, psychiatric hospital, or military bases...
. He gave his first media interview to the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
on 12 August. He did not refer to Kletzky by name, and kept referring to the smothering and dismembering of the boy as "the incident". He did not explain why he took and kept the boy, saying, "He looked familiar. I thought I knew him".
On 23 August, the State Supreme Court justice assigned to the case, Justice Neil J. Firetog, chided Aron's lawyers in court for discussing the case on their Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
pages, accused them of leaking the court-ordered psychological examination to the press, and questioned their ability to handle such a complex case given their lack of experience. Pierre Bazile, who passed the bar in 2007, has defended only one homicide case, while Jennifer McCann has defended six cases, three of them ending in acquittal. A veteran criminal defense laywer, Howard Greenberg, subsequently joined the defense team pro bono to offset the judge's criticism of lack of experience.
Pre-trial hearing
On October 24 Aron appeared at a brief hearing in the State Supreme Court via video conferencing. Outside the courtroom, his laywers claimed that police forced Aron to write his 450-word confession, stating that he is not sane enough to be aware of his actions. They also told reporters that they are pursuing an insanity defense.Denial of change of venue
In November, the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court denied Aron's counsel's request to move the trial to Suffolk CountySuffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...
or The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
in light of unfavorable media coverage in Brooklyn. However, it will allow the defense to re-apply for a change of venue
Change of venue
A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and/or its defendant to another...
after the jury pool is questioned.
Civil lawsuits
On 17 August, Nachman Kletzky filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against Levi Aron in Brooklyn Supreme Court, seeking damages for the "abduction, kidnapping, torture, murder and dismemberment" of his son. On 23 August, Kletzky filed a $100 million civil suit against Aron's father, Jack, for neglecting to monitor his son or protect Leiby while the latter was in his home.Leiby's Initiative
In the wake of the killing, State Assemblymen Dov HikindDov Hikind
Dov Hikind is an American politician in the state of New York. He is a Democratic New York State Assemblyman. Hikind is an Orthodox Jew representing Brooklyn's Assembly district 48...
and Peter Abbate
Peter Abbate
Peter Abbate Jr. represents District 49 in the New York State Assembly, which consists of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst....
and State Senator
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...
Diane Savino
Diane Savino
Diane Savino is a Democratic elected official from New York City, USA.She currently represents the 23rd Senate District in the New York State Senate, in northern Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn, including Sunset Park and Coney Island. She was elected in 2004.On December 2, 2009, Savino...
said they would introduce a bill called "Leiby's Initiative", which would grant a $500 annual tax credit
Tax credit
A tax credit is a sum deducted from the total amount a taxpayer owes to the state. A tax credit may be granted for various types of taxes, such as an income tax, property tax, or VAT. It may be granted in recognition of taxes already paid, as a subsidy, or to encourage investment or other behaviors...
to any New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
property owner who installs and maintains surveillance cameras on their property.
Leiby's Law
NYC Councilman David GreenfieldDavid G. Greenfield
David G. Greenfield is an American attorney and a member of the New York City Council representing the 44th council district, which comprises the neighborhoods of Bensonhurst, Boro Park, and Midwood in Brooklyn, New York. Greenfield is the founding director and counsel of TEACH NYS and prior to his...
has said he would propose "Leiby's Law," a bill under which businesses could volunteer to be designated as safe places for children who are lost or otherwise in trouble. Employees would undergo background checks and business owners would put a green sticker in their store windows so children know it's a safe place to get help.
On 16 August 2011, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced a similar program called "Safe Stop". So far, 76 stores have signed up to display a green "Safe Haven" sticker in their windows to help lost children.
Leiby Kletzky Memorial Fund
On July 20, relatives of Kletzky launched a website for the newly-established Leiby Kletzky Memorial Fund (www.give2gether.com), which aims to raise $1 million to help children and families in crisis and need. In its first day of operation, the website garnered $61,581 from 1,365 donors."Leiby Forever" song
In early August, Hasidic singer Lipa SchmeltzerLipa Schmeltzer
Elazar Lipa Schmeltzer is an American Hasidic singer and composer. He is a headliner within Hasidic and Haredi communities worldwide and has been called "the Jewish Elvis". Schmeltzer has released 10 solo albums as of 2011...
released a ballad called "Leiby Forever" and a seven-minute music video showing home movies of Kletzky growing up.