Prosecutors say David "D.J." Creato Jr. killed his son to save his new romantic relationship.
CAMDEN -- The last time Samantha Denoto saw her son Brendan, 3, she handed his father, David "D.J." Creato Jr., a money order to put in the boy's backpack to pay for preschool the next day.
She testified in Camden County Superior Court Thursday that she said goodbye to her son, who was staying at his dad's that night, and went to get pizza with her boyfriend.
But Brendan Creato never went to preschool the next day. He never put on the clothes that had been set out for his first day back after Columbus Day weekend in 2015.
He was instead found dead in Cooper River Park, about three-quarters of a mile from his father's apartment.
Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah told jurors in her opening statement earlier Thursday that David Creato Jr. killed his son because he was trying to save his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, who had a strong dislike for the boy.
Creato, who denies the charges, had told investigators that the boy must have unlocked the apartment door and wandered to the stream in the park by himself during the night.
State: Creato said 'spirit' led boy to stream
In the first day of Creato's trial Thursday, Denoto, 23, of Haddon Township, appeared calm and collected on the witness stand.
She never said herself that she believes her former boyfriend killed her son. When Fuschino asked her whether prosecutors had had to "persuade" her that Creato was the culprit, she said that she was able to draw her own conclusions about what happened.
She did testify that when detectives asked her to secretly record a conversation with Creato on Nov. 12, 2015, she agreed.
During that talk, she said, Creato repeated what he had said before about Brendan's disappearance: That the door was locked, he put his son to sleep on the couch in the living room and went to bed himself, only to find in the morning that the door was unlocked and Brendan was gone.
But towards the end of the conversation, when they talked about what else might have happened, he surprised her.
"He told me that maybe the spirits told him to walk down to the woods, which is," she paused and searched for the words, "completely odd and unexplainable. It's not logical."
She said Creato told her that the place where Brendan's body was found was a "sacred, spiritual spot."
It was a "very unusual" statement, she testified, but Creato had during their seven year relationship occasionally made statements about "feeling" and seeing spirits.
Panic and dread
Denoto told jurors how she was awoken at 6 a.m. Oct. 13, 2015 by Creato's phone call, saying that Brendan was missing.
"I literally ran to my car in what I was wearing and drove to his apartment," she said. Within minutes, she was searching neighbors' yards with Creato and his mother. She realized she had forgotten to put on shoes, she testified.
Eventually, she said in court, police took her to the Haddon Township Police Station and gave her the news.
"They told me that they found my son in the woods," Denoto said.
No specific cause of death was ever determined for Brendan. The prosecutor's office called it "homicidal violence" that could have been caused by drowning, strangulation or blunt neck trauma.
Jury will see spot where toddler found dead
Denoto told jurors that she and Creato broke up when she was 20 and their son was two. He split his time between their homes fairly equally, but they had no formal custody agreement, she said.
On cross examination, she confirmed that Creato was a fairly gentle, soft-spoken man and that she never saw him raise a hand against his son. He appeared to be a loving father, she agreed.
Shah asked Denoto about a text message from Creato about "getting physical" with Brendan, somehow related to an incident with a pet rat, but Denoto said she did not remember it. Objections from defense attorney Richard J. Fuschino Jr. quashed Shah's attempts to show Denoto the message to refresh her memory.
Fuschino also questioned Denoto about Brendan having behavioral issues at daycare, although it was not immediately clear how the information might be relevant to the boy's death.
Denoto said her son acted out at times, refusing to listen or hitting others. He started doing "play therapy" three to four times a week in the last few weeks of his life, she said.
The search for Brendan
Denoto's hour-long testimony Thursday came after three public safety officials described their responses to Creato's 911 call and the resulting search for the boy.
They were Sgt. Lance Saunders of the Camden County Prosecutor's Office Homicide Unit, Camden County Chief of Communications James Jankowski, and Haddon Township Patrolman Kirk Earney.
Saunders and Earney both said that Creato calmly answered all their questions and allowed them to search his apartment and vehicle.
Earney said Creato told him the apartment door had been locked and no one else had a key, but also that Brendan knew how to unlock the door.
"He had recently shown him how to do it," Earney said.
During his opening statement, Fuschino told jurors that the police investigation was flawed in that it targeted Creato from the beginning. He said that a fresh cigarette butt found at the crime scene contained DNA that did not match Creato or anyone in the national DNA database.
The trial, expected to last until the end of May, will begin again Tuesday morning.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.