Dad pleads not guiltily to killing 3-year-old Brendan Creato

DJ Creato — the south Jersey father accused of killing his 3-year-old boy to keep his 17-year-old girlfriend from leaving him — pleaded not guilty Monday, according to multiple reports.

So far, there have been no discussions of a plea deal, PhillyVoice.com reported, citing defense lawyer Richard J. Fuschino Jr. of Philadelphia. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office hasn't offered any suggestion of whether such a deal could be offered.

According to the report, Creato will next be in court in March, but a trial could be a year or more away.

Prosecutors allege DJ Creato either drowned or smothered toddler Brendan Creato to appease his girlfriend of just four months, who'd often told him she didn't like children.

Creato is charged with both murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

Creato reported his son missing form the 100 block of Cooper Street at 6 a.m. on Oct. 19. A K9 unit found Brendan in a wooded area off South Park Drive in Haddon Township deceased shortly before 9 a.m., authorities have said.

“I just woke up and my 3-year-old is missing,” David Creato could be heard saying on a 911 call from his Haddon Township home at about 6 a.m. Oct. 13.

David Creato Jr. was taken into custody the afternoon of Jan. 11 in Washington Township at his job.

Authorities had been largely quiet about the case since Brendan's body was discovered, declining to make any statement as to whether the death was intentional or accidental. But police did say in October there were no signs of a break-in at the home. An initial autopsy proved inconclusive. Toxicology tests reportedly came back negative.

Richard J. Fuschino, the attorney for David Creato, had said in October that based on conversations with investigators, he did not believe his client was a suspect.

Reports in November said Brendan's aunt, 20-year-old Sarah Jessica Creato, had testified before a grand jury in the case.

Reports emerged in late October of witnesses saying the day Brendan mysteriously went missing and died, an older man was seen with a baby carriage nearby. It was one of several details in a report by PhillyVoice.com, which quoted Haddon Township resident Mark Hoover saying he’d seen an older white man wheeling a baby carriage toward Cooper River Park early in the morning of Oct. 13.

The report quoted Hoover saying the white man pushing the carriage wore a yellow sweater, tan pants and eyeglasses, and appeared to be at least 60. The man was out with the stroller before sunrise, and the carriage was covered with a blanket, Hoover reportedly said.

Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Spokesman Andy McNeil told New Jersey 101.5 at the time he couldn’t comment on the reports of a man with a stroller because of the ongoing investigation.

But he did briefly confirm other aspects of the report: Brendan had been in his father’s care the night he went missing. In the 911 recording, his father, DJ Creato, is heard saying the doors to his home were locked.

McNeil also told New Jersey 101.5 at the time investigators are aware of two other details reported by PhillyVoice.com:

• The report quoted Tumblr posts by a person it describes as DJ Creato’s girlfriend, Julia “Julie” Spensky, in which she said she’s learned she could be facing “criminal charges in a homicide investigation” and that “my boyfriend is in worse trouble than I am and can’t leave the state he’s in.”

• The PhillyVoice report also said a no-longer-online YouTube trailer made by Sarah Jessica Creato featured Brendan Creato in the role of a toddler named “Mikey” who disappeared. David Creato Sr., the boy's grandfather, reveals the disappearance in the trailer, the report said. At the end of the trailer, viewers learn “Mikey” had died, according to the report. The report said the trailer was apparently made for a college class, but it wasn’t clear from the report how long ago it was produced and posted.

New Jersey 101.5 has not seen the Tumblr posts or the YouTube video. But McNeil, in a brief email in October, said detectives had been aware of both.

In an NBC10 report at the time, Bill Brenna, Sarah Jessica Creato’s lawyer, called the video an uncanny coincidence.

“It’s a red herring,” he reportedly said. “I would just encourage people not to focus too much on it. It’s a waste of time.”

Neighbors said in October they were sure David Creato was innocent.

“He’s a baby, and some stranger out there did this, and they need to find who did this,” Bernadette Ferraro said. In a brief interview with New Jersey 101.5 in October, she said over and over again she knew the father wasn’t responsible.

“We know that it’s not somebody from this town. It’s not his family. It’s not his father. A stranger did this,” she said. “We know the father. He said ‘I don’t want a lawyer, I didn’t do this. Please find the person that did this.’ He didn’t do this. Please let him go.”

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