NEW YORK — A man was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on murder and kidnapping charges in the killing and dismemberment of an 8-year-old boy abducted off a Brooklyn street last week.
Levi Aron, 35, was indicted on eight counts. Prosecutors allege he lured Leiby Kletzky to Aron’s home after the boy, who had gotten lost while walking home from a day camp, asked him for help.
Detectives later found the boy’s severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in Aron’s freezer. The rest of the boy’s body was discovered in bags inside a red suitcase in a trash bin.
The medical examiner said earlier Wednesday that Leiby was given a cocktail of painkillers and muscle relaxants before he was smothered.
Aron previously pleaded not guilty after he was arrested on murder and kidnapping charges. His attorney, Pierre Bazile, declined to comment on the medical examiner’s findings and has asked the public to let the judicial process take its course.
Bazile said Aron suffers from hallucinations and has been under a suicide watch. He is currently at Bellevue Hospital, where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office said it was investigating whether there were any other incidents in Aron’s past.
Chief police spokesman Paul Browne said Wednesday that detectives think the boy was killed sometime late in the afternoon or early in the evening on July 12 after Aron returned home from work — which means the boy was alive for about a day after he disappeared.
Investigators say it’s possible that while Aron was at work that day, the boy was in his apartment all day of his own free will.
Leiby’s death, ruled a homicide, was caused by intoxication from the combined effects of cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxant; quetiapine, an antipsychotic; and the pain medications hydrocodone and acetaminophen, followed by smothering.
