Man Wanted For 1978 Murder Has No Prints On File With Police

During the two weeks a New Lenox man was wrongly jailed for a murder that another man was wanted for, Joliet detectives ran down and interviewed men and women with information on the 1978 killing.

"Most of the witnesses are in their 70s and 80s," said Joliet police Cmdr. Brian Benton. "Following up on the information from these witnesses, some didn't recall from that far back."

But the detectives charged with trying to find out whether they had the right person in jail had no other recourse—the man wanted for the killing had never been arrested, and his fingerprints are not on file, Benton said.

The legwork resulted in locating a witness who said the man in jail, Pedro Hernandez, 67, was not the Pedro Hernandez wanted on a 35-year-old murder warrant.

That Pedro Hernandez was charged with stabbing a man in the chest outside a Meeker Street bar in April 1978. The stabbed man, Julian Briseno, died of his wounds.The Pedro Hernandez who allegedly stabbed Briseno is 66 years old if he is still alive.

The Pedro Hernandez arrested on the warrant March 14 was freed two weeks later. A widower and father of four who joined the Army 50 years ago at age 17, that Pedro Hernandez said he is looking for a lawyer so he can discuss filing a lawsuit in connection with his incarceration.

Benton said police reports from the 1970s contain little information compared to current reports, and this made the task of clearing Hernandez even more challenging.

Detectives on the case eventually made contact with a distant relative of the wanted man and were told that they had the wrong person in jail, Benton said.

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