Police: New Lenox man mistakenly held for 1978 murder had stabbed a man in 1966

Identifiers, statement about 1966 homicide aroused police interest

April 04, 2013|By Gregory Pratt, Chicago Tribune reporter

When a New Lenox police officer pulled over Pedro Hernandez in March on suspicion of drunk driving, they ran his information through the system.

Police noticed that Hernandez' identifiers resembled those of a man named Pedro Hernandez who was wanted for a 1978 murder in Joliet. When the officer asked why his information would come up, he "made a statement about him being involved with a homicide in 1966," said Joliet Cmdr. Brian Benton.

"'I thought that chapter of my life was past me,' was one of the comments he made," according to Benton.

Hernandez was arrested by New Lenox police on March 14 and charged with a DUI. He was held for two weeks in the Will County jail while police tried to determine whether he was the same Pedro Hernandez who stabbed Julian Briseno outside a Joliet bar in 1978.

Joliet police re-investigated the 1978 case and determined that Hernandez, 67, was not the same man. The Will County state's attorney's office worked to release him as soon as they realized he was not the same man, said office spokesperson Charles B. Pelkie.

In the Joliet murder, a different Pedro Hernandez got into an altercation with Briseno on April 2, 1978, at an Hispanic bar off of Collins St., police said.

Briseno had struck Hernandez upside the head with a handgun "then fled outside the bar," police said.

Hernandez went outside, Briseno returned and Hernandez stabbed him approximately 17 times, according to police.

That Pedro Hernandez, who is still wanted by police, is 66 years old.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials confirmed that the Pedro Hernandez who was arrested for DUI in New Lenox was involved with a prior stabbing in Rockdale, just southwest of Joliet.

On Sept. 4, 1966, the Rockdale Police Department received a call from St. Joseph's Hospital in Joliet informing them that two young men had been stabbed in Rockdale, said Chief Robert Dykstra.

At the emergency room, police spoke with Charles Raysel, then-18, who had been cut on his left arm by Hernandez. His friend, Lewis Acosta, had been stabbed in the "upper left chest."

Acosta died from his injuries.

Police learned that Hernandez had gone to a friend's house with Lewis' sister, where Hernandez got into a fight with Acosta and Raysel, Dykstra said.

Backing his car into another vehicle before driving off, Hernandez said, "I'll be back, I'll see you later," according to police.

Hernandez returned to Raysel's home in his car and approached Lewis Acosta, his brother Fernando and Raysel.

Fernando dodged Hernandez, police said, but his brother was stabbed in the chest. Raysel was cut under his left arm.

Reached for comment, Fernando Acosta confirmed those details.

"I seen him coming at me and I took off and he didn't catch me," Acosta said in an interview. "I'd seen the knife, you know what I mean?"

Hernandez admitted to stabbing Lewis and cutting Raysel in a statement to police, said Dykstra.

He told officers that he'd arrived at the residence, put the knife in his back pocket and searched for stones to throw. When he couldn't find any, Hernandez took the knife out.

Police described a chaotic scene, with the group scattering after Hernandez cut Raysel. Lewis Acosta went behind the house and came back with a push broom he held like a baseball bat.

As Hernandez held up his left arm to block a blow from the broom, he stabbed Acosta, police said.

Police recovered a fish knife about 125 steps from where the stabbing took place, according to the original police report.

Dykstra said it would be "interesting" to know what the state's attorney's office's reasoning was behind the determination of self-defense.

"That goes back almost 50 years, that case," Pelkie said. "That determination was made by then-State's Attorney George Sangmeister."

Hernandez could not be reached for comment.

In an interview with a web publication, Hernandez suggested that he was looking for an attorney over his wrongful arrest.

Pelkie said his office and the police departments acted in "good faith."

"When the identifiers are this strong and you've got a case that goes back quite some time, you have to make sure you have all your bases covered, that you're not releasing someone who would've been subject to (arrest under the 1978 warrant)," Pelkie said.

Once it was determined that Hernandez was not the subject of that arrest warrant, "he was released."