A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars for killing his 3-year-old son in order to keep his teenage girlfriend.
32-year-old David Creato pleaded guilty back in August to the October 2015 crime. His sentencing took place on Friday, according to the Associated Press.
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Creato admitted to the first-degree aggravated manslaughter of his son, Brendan Creato, whose body was found in the woods near the family’s New Jersey home.
Three months after a previous mistrial of the case, Creato made his plea agreement.
In the re-trial, prosecutors argued that Creato killed his son in an attempt to prevent his 17-year-old girlfriend from breaking up with him while she went off to college. She reportedly did not like the son and this was Creato’s way of preventing her from leaving him.
“He lied to the police, he lied to his parents. Worst of all, he lied to Brendan’s mother, who certainly had a right to know exactly what happened to their son,” assistant prosecutor Christine Shah said.
Initially, Creato claimed that his son wandered away from their home. However, when Brendan’s body was found in the woods, he was wearing his pajamas and neon green socks that were clean. The prosecution argued that it would have been impossible for Brendan’s socks to be clean if he had walked through the woods to where his body was found.
“Creato stated under oath that he recklessly caused his son’s death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life by depriving Brendan of oxygen on October 13, 2015,” prosecutors told PEOPLE.
Neither Creato nor his defense team offered a statement prior to the sentencing.
Even though Creato admitted to the crime, his father, believes that his son is innocent.
“The wrong person is sitting in jail,” David Creato Sr. said.
Creato Sr. said after the hearing that he is reaching out to private investigators in order to catch the real killer, who he believes is not his son.
