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Accused Child Murderer Levi Aron Refuses To Apologize During Jailhouse Interview

Ben Yakas

Published Aug 12, 2011

Modified Aug 12, 2011

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Ben Yakas

Published Aug 12, 2011

Modified Aug 12, 2011

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Levi Aron, the man who confessed to killing and dismembering 8-year-old Hasidic boy Leiby Kletzky last month, was recently found mentally competent to stand trial, despite a psychiatric evaluation which found that he has a personality disorder. The News was able to get an exclusive interview with the accused killer at Rikers Island, in which he would not apologize for his confessed crime: "It hurts too much to think about it...I don't know what happened. I just panicked."

This was Aron's first interview since he allegedly kidnapped, killed and dismembered Leiby on July 11. During the interview, Aron never referred to Leiby by name, and called the moment he killed him "the incident." They describe him as looking lethargic, with watery eyes—and he blinked almost uncontrollably. To many questions, he responded merely, “I don’t know” and “I remember little things." Several times, the News asked him if he wanted to apologize, but Aron kept looking away and remained silent.

The day of the kidnapping, Aron said the boy looked familiar to him, although he could not (or would not) explain why he took the boy with him to a wedding upstate. Even so, he did appear "ashamed and embarrassed" when asked about Leiby, and stressed several times that the boy slept in the living room, not his bedroom. Since his arrest, he has been on a round-the-clock suicide watch, and he said he only leaves his bed to shower.

Previously, Aron's self-proclaimed best friend called him "borderline retarded"; it was also revealed that his sister had died while institutionalized for schizophrenia. Because of the psychiatric evaluation, Aron's defense attorneys, who have said that Aron has been hearing voices “telling him to take his own life for what he did,” believe Aron may be teetering on the edge of schizophrenia.

Tagged

apologies

brooklyn

dismemberment

leiby kletzky

levi aron

murder

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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