Leiby Kletzky case: Levi Aron guilty plea after abducting, smothering and dismembering NY boy

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York hardware clerk pleaded guilty Thursday to second degree murder and kidnapping in the second degree, after abducting, smothering and dismembering an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy in the Hasidic Jewish enclave of Borough Park.

Levi Aron will spend 40 years to life behind bars for the two counts, after the sentencing phase on August 29, for the killing of Leiby Kletzky last summer.

His attorney, Jennifer L. McCann, was not immediately available for comment.

Police say Leiby's dismembered body was found in Aron's freezer and inside a suitcase in a nearby trash bin.

New York City's chief medical examiner said the Brooklyn boy died last summer after being drugged and then smothered.

The autopsy results for Leiby listed a cocktail of four prescription and over-the-counter drugs in the boy's system: cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxant; quetiapine, an antipsychotic drug; hydrocodone, a pain medication; and acetaminophen, the drug found in Tylenol.

Both Aron and Leiby were members of the borough's close-knit Orthodox Jewish community, although police say it doesn't appear that they knew each other.

Kletzky's family is expected to release a statement through New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind's office later on Thursday.
 
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