NEW YORK, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- New York police said that per their practice, they did not videotape the interrogation of Conrado Juarez, who admitted to killing the child known as Baby Hope.
Juarez, 52, told police he killed his 4-year-old cousin, Anjelica Castillo, 22 years ago after sodomizing her.
But days later, he retracted part of his story, and told reporters that he disposed of the 4-year-old's body in 1991, but did not kill her, The New York Times said.
"So after a while and after so much pressure, I accepted it and said what they wanted," he told the reporter, noting that he was interrogated for 12 hours.
Juarez's confession was recorded after an assistant district attorney and video technician came to take his statement, the Times said.
Prosecutors have insisted that the lack of a videotape will not affect the outcome of the case.
Juarez's lawyer said he will contest the confession and the nature of the investigation.
"I am suspicious of any kind of confession given after he was in custody for so many hours," he said.
A year ago, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly pledged that the department would begin videotaping interrogations in homicide and sex cases.
But two-thirds of detective squads in the city are still not recording any interrogations, the Times said.
