Lone Holdout on Etan Patz Jury Says He Couldn't Get Beyond Reasonable Doubt

— -- One juror refused to budge in the case of missing New York City boy Etan Patz, resulting in a mistrial today after 18 days of deliberations.

Pedro Hernandez was on trial for allegedly murdering Etan in 1979. But one juror, identified by only his first name, Adam, said he couldn't get beyond reasonable doubt. He said "mental health issues" were a big factor in why he couldn't convict Hernandez and he called Hernandez's confession "very bizarre."

"I couldn't find enough evidence that wasn't circumstantial to convict," Adam said. "I couldn't get there."

Adam said the deliberations "got heated sometimes," but "it wasn't torture." He called his fellow jurors "very respectful" of his position.

Another juror, identified by only his first name, Chris, said the majority of the jurors were confident in their positions.

"We deliberated long and hard, clearly... and it came out to be 11 to 1, guilty / not guilty," Chris said. "The mandate was clearly not to convict on words alone, and we felt that we were very comfortable in our position rendering a guilty verdict."

"They'll get him next time," said a woman who identified herself as juror #1. "Pedro Hernandez: you know what you did."

The jury deliberated over 18 days and deadlocked three times before Judge Maxwell Wiley declared a mistrial today.

"We are frustrated and very disappointed that the jury has been unable to come to a decision," Etan's father Stan Patz told reporters today.

"This man did it," Stan Patz said. "He said it. How many times does a man have to confess before someone believes him?"

"Maybe Pedro Hernandez is a different man, now that he's mature and 54, but when he was 18 years old, he did something terrible, and he should pay for that," Stan Patz added. "Our long ordeal is not over."

But defense attorneys said Hernandez was "inconsistent and unreliable" when he confessed to relatives, friends and police.

"I would say that there's only a resolution if the correct man is held responsible, and we firmly believe that Pedro Hernandez is not the right man," defense attorney Harvey Fishbein said. "We are disappointed that there couldn't be a resolution, but if the District Attorney's office chooses to retry this case, we will be ready."

Prosecutors immediately requested a June 10 control date to set a new trial date. While prosecutors did not explicitly say in court whether they would retry the case, according to official in the District Attorney’s office, "we are moving towards a retrial."

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, sparking a national effort to put photos of missing children on milk cartons. Etan became one of the nation's most notorious missing children cases, and May 25 is now known as National Missing Children’s Day.