Dad accused of killing toddler rejects 35-year plea deal

Brendan Creato, 3, was found dead in a stream on Oct. 13, 2015.

CAMDEN -- Three seconds passed between the time police told David "D.J." Creato that his three-year-old son was dead and the moment he reacted to the news. 

Those seconds of silence between detectives and Creato -- inside the Haddon Township police station the morning Brendan was reported missing -- are a sign that Creato was well aware his son's fate, the prosecutor's office said in court Tuesday.

"He knew what was coming," Camden County Prosecutor's Office Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah said.

But Creato's lawyer, Richard J. Fuschino Jr., who was fighting to have the taped interview suppressed from court proceedings, disagrees.

"I don't know how she (Shah) knows how every person reacts to awful news," Fuschino said outside court Tuesday.

Creato, who is charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment, rejected a 35-year plea deal with the Camden County Prosecutor's Office and will stand trial on Oct. 3, nearly a year after his son was found dead in a stream that feeds into the Cooper River. 

"We're going to go to trial," Fuschino said outside the Camden County courthouse Tuesday after the motion to suppress was shot down by Superior Court Judge John T. Kelley.

Lengthy portions of Creato's interview at a Haddon Township Police Department interrogation room on Oct. 13 were played for Kelley, with Camden County Prosecutor's Office Detective Michael Rhoads being called in as a witness.

"Did he drown?" a visibly shaken and highly emotional Creato -- who has been behind bars since being indicted in January -- asks after being informed of his son's death and where the body was found.

Toss case against dad, lawyer argues

"He's my best friend. I love him so much," "I love my son. He's always going to be a part of my life," and "I'll do anything. I have nothing to hide," were just some of the statements Creato made during his hours-long interview at the Haddon Township Police Department.

Part of that interview revealed Creato read three books to his son before putting him to sleep on a living room couch around 9:30 p.m. and bedding down himself within the hour.

Rhoads, who along with Haddon Township police Detective Don Quinn questioned Creato that morning and late into the day, said the father eventually became a suspect.

Brendan's body was found by a Delaware River Port Authority police K-9 draped over a rock in a stream near the Cooper River roughly three hours after Creato called 911 at around 6 a.m. to report his son missing from the apartment about a half-mile from the scene.

What's more, the boy's clean socks led investigators to believe that the body was placed at the scene and that he didn't -- as Creato pondered while speaking with police -- somehow get there on his own.

"If you didn't know where you were going, you'd need directions," Rhoads said of locating the scene, adding that he he "immediately observed" the socks as being clean.

However, Creato said in his interview with police that he wasn't sure if the front door to his apartment was locked nor did he think the boy, who was afraid of the dark, would have wandered off to that location.

'Absurd' to dismiss case, cops say

Authorities argue Creato killed his son to continue a relationship with a girlfriend who disliked children and his continued contact with Brendan's mother, whom he did not live with.

"We've always been breaking up over this," he told detectives during the interview, noting that the girlfriend went so far as to say she'd help him pay for child support. "It's not that she doesn't like him; she doesn't like kids."

Creato's occasionally rocky relationship with his girlfriend, a then 17-year-old college student in New York, was also addressed during his interview with detectives. Creato accessed one of her social media accounts at some point during the early morning hours of Oct. 13, 2015, however the duration could not be determined.

Fuschino made it a point to argue the duration, as his client said he went to bed around 10 p.m. and did not wake up until around 6 a.m. to discover his son missing.

Further, a photo on Creato's phone taken near the scene a mere 24 hours before the boy's death raised suspicions. However, many more photos of father and son existed showing the two hanging out -- all smiles.

Fuschino argued that Creato wasn't read his Miranda rights and while signing away his phone to aid with the investigation, apparently wasn't aware of the full scope said search would entail.

"He's trying to help. He's trying to be cooperative," Fuschino said, adding that the "Miranda-like soliloquy" he was given earlier in the day "does not meet Constitutional muster."

Kelley found that neither Creato, his girlfriend nor the boy's mother were given any sort of Miranda warnings at first. Further, the judge felt Creato was not technically in police custody and could have left if he chose to.

"It is clear from the video that was played ... that he was advised of his rights," Kelley said.

If convicted, Creato could spend life in prison.