Man Who Threw Infant Son Off Arrigoni Bridge Loses Appeal

MIDDLETOWN, CT — A man convicted of throwing his 7-month-old son Aaden Moreno off the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown during 2015 lost an appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court. The court released its decision Tuesday.

Tony Moreno claimed that the trial court erred when it didn’t suppress evidence of statements he had made to police, but the state Supreme Court didn’t buy the argument. Tony Moreno is serving the maximum 70 year sentence without parole eligibility after he was convicted of murder and risk of injury to a child.

Police arrived at the bridge and found Moreno alone after he had sent several troubling text messages to family members, including Aaden’s mother Adrianne Oyola. The judge who sentenced Moreno said some of the texts were “demonic” taunts.

He jumped from the bridge and into the river as police arrived, but was rescued by emergency responders. Police later interviewed him, with one officer using a basketball analogy to find out how Moreno threw the baby off the bridge, according to the court’s decision. Moreno said he threw the baby like a “free throw.”

Aaden's body was later found near the East Haddam Bridge.

Moreno’s attorney wrote a letter to prosecutors that said he was willing to plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence, but the state rejected the offer and the letter wasn’t included at the trial. Supreme Court judges ruled that the letter was a tactile legal maneuver and wasn’t evidence of Moreno’s state of mind when the baby went into the water.

Moreno claimed during the trial that he accidentally dropped his son.