New Trial Set For David Creato

HADDON TOWNSHIP, NJ — The second trial of a Haddon Township man accused of killing his 3-year-old son will begin in the fall. David “DJ” Creato, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child in the death of his son, Brendan. His first trial was held in the spring, and ended in a mistrial.

The new trial will begin on Sept. 11, nj.com reports. At that time, pre-trial motions and jury selection will take place. Creato has remained incarcerated since he was arrested in January of 2016.

In the first trial, the jury voted 10-2 in favor of finding Creato guilty on the first-degree murder charge. It never deliberated the child endangerment charge. After the trial, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said it would re-prosecute the case. The new trial date was announced during a status hearing on Wednesday.

One of the two jurors in that case told the Philly Voice he was unconvinced by the prosecution’s claim that Creato killed his son because his then-girlfriend didn’t like children. She also was concerned with the prosecution’s handling of the case, and later learned of Camden County Medical Examiner Gerald Feigin’s checkered history.

Fuschino also attacked Feigin’s credibility throughout the case. The cause of Brendan’s death was never entirely clear, with Shah using the phrase “homicidal violence of unknown etiology.”

Investigators believed the child was either smothered or drowned, and the uncertainty has been attributed to the fact that Feigin didn’t respond to the scene as soon as the body was discovered, as required by state law.

The law states the examiner must report to any scene that includes any type of suspicious death, including violent deaths and deaths in which the cause isn’t immediately clear, among others.

Feigin didn’t respond to the scene for several days. Fuschino attempted to have the case dismissed based on these circumstances. He even pointed to two cases in Massachusetts Feigin appeared to have mishandled, and a recent case in South Jersey in which a woman’s hand was left behind at a crash scene.

Four other jurors have told Philly.com they felt Creato’s story was inconsistent. They pointed to the fact he said he was asleep from 10 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2015, until 6 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2015, despite evidence that showed he used his cell phone at about 1:30 a.m.

Creato reported his son missing at about 6 a.m. the morning of Oct. 13. Brendan’s body was found in Cooper River Park about three hours later.

The jury viewed the interrogation of Creato by Haddon Township police in the hours after he reported his son missing multiple times during its deliberation after viewing once during the trial itself. The case was ultimately declared a mistrial on May 31.

Attached image: David Creato appears in court Thursday, May 4, 2017, during day seven of his trial in connection with the death of his 3-year-old son, in Camden, N.J. Creato maintains his innocence. (Joe Lambert/Camden Courier-Post via AP, Pool)