Kensington Man Pleads Guilty to Leiby Kletzy's Murder

A Kensington man pleaded guilty on Thursday to the kidnap and murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzy, which he committed last July. 

According to the Brooklyn District Attorney, 36-year-old Levi Aron, who at the time lived on East 2nd St. near Avenue C, will be sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for kidnapping Kletzy as he walked to his Borough Park home from summer camp, later killing him and distributing his remains in a nearby dumpster and his own freezer. 

 “With this guilty plea, I hope the process of healing and hopefully closure can begin for the Kletzky family and community,” said District Attorney Charles Hynes.  “No one should ever forget what happened to Leiby Kletzky but we can all take solace that Levi Aron will never, ever be able to hurt anyone again.”  

Aron admitted to kidnapping Kletzy on July 11 of last year, taking him to a family wedding upstate before bringing him back to Kensington to spend the night in his apartment, continuing to hold him throughout the following day.  

Panicked by the community's increasingly desperate search for Kletzy, Aron returned home on July 12 from his job at a Borough Park hardware store, fed the boy a cocktail of painkillers and smothered him.

He then cut up Kletzy's remains, putting some in his freezer and others in a Sunset Park dumpster two miles away. 

Authorities were led to Aron with the help of video surveillance shortly after the murder. Aron himself showed police to the dumpster where the remainder of Kletzy's body was stowed. 

The news of Kletzy's murder sent shock waves through the orthodox Jewish community, horrified that such a heinous crime was committed by one of its own.

Since Leiby's death, the Kletzky family has received more than 200,000 letters of condolence from around the world, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

Aron's sentencing will be held on Aug. 29.