Ramon Rodriguez told Manhattan jurors that Hernandez spilled his guts at a church retreat in 1979, the year Etan vanished.
“I do remember exactly the words that Pedro said,” Rodriguez, 76, said, testifying through an interpreter. “That he took the child, took him to the basement. He grabbed him there, took him by the neck, took a stick and he struck him with the stick several times . . . He told me that he had abused the child.”