Levi Aron
UNSPEAKABLE ACT: Levi Aron confessed to the 2011 murder and butchering of Leiby Kletzky (inset), 8. (
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Little Leiby Kletzky’s killer will likely die behind bars under a plea deal pushed by the 8-year-old victim’s family, sources said yesterday.
Confessed “Brooklyn Butcher’’ Levi Aron, 36, would land 40 years to life — getting 25-plus years for pleading guilty to murder and another 15 years for kidnapping, sources said.
Leiby’s heartbroken family spearheaded the deal to avoid a lengthy and painful trial where they would have had to revisit the gruesome details of the child’s death in 2011, said a law-enforcement source with knowledge of the negotiations to The Post.
“You don’t want to sit in the courtroom and hear someone describe your baby’s wounds,” the source said.
State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose district includes the neighborhood where the boy lived and knows his parents, added, “They wouldn’t have thrown the towel in for 10 years or for 20, but with 40 years, they feel he’ll be spending most of his life in jail.
“If everything goes according to plan, what’s on the table right now will bring it to a conclusion,” said Hikind, speaking on behalf of Leiby’s parents, who are expecting a baby in the next two months.
“The family feels that justice will have been done.”
If the family wanted a trial, the Brooklyn DA’s Office would not have made the deal, a law-enforcement source said.
And if that trial were to happen, the source added, “There was a strong case against him.”
“He’s pleading guilty to a top count,” the source said. “Aron is getting the sentence he would have gotten at trial.”
The Borough Park madman confessed to snatching Leiby off the street in July 2011 after the little boy got lost walking alone for the first time to meet his mom after summer camp.
Aron claimed that he grabbed the boy after the child had asked him for directions and took him home.
The accused killer then held him captive for more than a day before smothering him in a “panic” when he found out there was an intense search for him, cops said.
The fiend then cut off the child’s feet and stashed them in his freezer, cops said.
The confessed killer threw the rest of the small corpse in a garbage bin two miles away.
Police tracked down Aron after reviewing security footage from a dental office he had just visited before encountering the boy.
In October, Aron’s lawyers said they were planning on building an insanity defense — likely sending the butcher to an asylum for the rest of his life.
“Levi Aron is either evil or he is crazy,” defense lawyer Howard Greenberg said at the time.
Greenberg — who insisted that he would quit criminal law if his client wasn’t proven to be insane — declined to comment yesterday.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA’s Office yesterday would not comment on the deal, which won’t be official until a judge hears it during Aron’s next court appearance Aug. 9.
“It’s not a deal until it’s a done deal and the judge bangs his gavel, but there’s no reason to think he’ll change his mind,” a law-enforcement source said.
But for now, Hikind said, the family is pleased.
“They can move on and live their life,” he said.