Killer Levi Aron was formally charged in a New York court today after he killed a lost Brooklyn boy walking home from day camp. Levi Aron pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping and is being held without bail. Police said that Aron drove Leiby Kletzky to a Rockland County catering hall and that the boy waited in the car.
Leiby, a small Orthodox Jewish boy had met his killer, a man with a history of dead-end jobs and dead-end marriages. Leiby met Aron on a sidewalk in Borough Park, a predominantly Orthodox Jewish community, and, as he was lost, he asked the objectively disturbed for directions. Aron then told the boy that he could take him to watch television, something that religious Jews cannot do at home.
The police said that Mr. Aron had scratches on his wrists and arms, suggesting that the little boy had struggled to save his own young life. Aron told the police that he suffocated the boy with a towel and that Leiby "fought back a little bit until eventually he stopped breathing."
Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said that he will ask a grand jury to impose the "maximum charges permitted by law" for the dismemberment of eight-year-old Leiby Kletzky.
The Orthodox community was thoroughly confused when the 35-year-old Orthodox man abducted and dismembered an innocent also-Orthodox little boy.
Aron's defense said that their client "hears voices" and that he may not understand the charges against him. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that Aron sporadically starts giggling despite the grave charges against him and the serious nature of what he did. The objectively disturbed man sits under suicide watch. It is more than likely that he will be deemed unsuitable for trial. In these cases, the suspect is put on medication and subsequently re-evaluated.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that Aron implicated himself in the murder after police asked where the boy was. Aron reportedly pointed to the kitchen and said that the rest of the body was in a plastic bag inside of a red suitcase in a trash bin.
State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said, "Everyone is in total shock, beyond belief, beyond comprehension ... to suddenly disappear and then the details ... and the fact someone in the extended community ... it's awful," reported the Associated Press.
