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After mistrial and plea deal, Creato to hear sentence in killing of his 3-year-old son Brendan

David "D.J." Creato pleaded guilty in August to aggravated manslaughter.

David D.J.” Creato Jr., center, appears in court in this file photo. He will be sentenced Sept. 29 in the death of his 3-year-old son, Brendan, in Haddon Township. Creato pleaded guilty in August to aggravated manslaughter.
David D.J.” Creato Jr., center, appears in court in this file photo. He will be sentenced Sept. 29 in the death of his 3-year-old son, Brendan, in Haddon Township. Creato pleaded guilty in August to aggravated manslaughter.Read moreDavid Maialetti

David "D.J." Creato Jr. is scheduled to be sentenced later today for killing his 3-year-old son, Brendan, whose body was found in woods near his Haddon Township home in October 2015.

In a stunning move, Creato, 23, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge John T. Kelley in August to aggravated manslaughter. The plea agreement calls for a maximum of 10 years in prison. He will be required to serve 8½ years before he can be paroled.

The plea came 2½ weeks before Creato was to stand trial a second time for murder, on Sept. 11. In his first trial, jurors were unable to reach a verdict in May after three days of deliberations. During the 10-day trial prosecutors alleged that he killed the boy in a desperate attempt to prevent his girlfriend, who disliked Creato's having had a child from a previous relationship, from leaving him.

No specific cause of death was determined. Three medical examiners ruled that Brendan died of  "homicidal violence" but could not determine whether he was drowned, strangled, or smothered. In court in August, Creato admitted that he "recklessly caused his son's death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life by depriving Brendan of oxygen."

After prosecutors tried the case in May, 10 jurors said they believed Creato was guilty, but the remaining two jurors concluded there was not enough evidence to convict him.

During the trial, prosecutors presented numerous text messages and other communications between Creato and Julie Stensky in which she often expressed displeasure at Brendan's role in Creato's life. At one point, Stensky, who had left for college in New York, wrote online that the child was "a mistake" who would anchor Creato to New Jersey forever.

"I'm willing to do anything or change anything for you," Creato texted Stensky a week before Brendan died. The couple, who met on the dating app Tinder, exchanged more than 9,400 text messages, according to prosecutors. Stensky has not faced any charges.

The defense argued that Creato was the victim of a flawed police investigation and that authorities had only circumstantial evidence to link Creato to his son's death.

Creato called 911 around 6 a.m. on Oct. 13, saying that when he woke up he discovered Brendan was missing. The call followed a night during which he had argued with Stensky. There was no sign of forced entry to his second-floor apartment. Creato and the boy's mother, Samantha Denoto, shared custody but did not live together.

Brendan's pajama-clad body was found about three hours later, slumped over a rock and partially submerged in a creek in woods about three-quarters of a mile from Creato's apartment. The bottoms of the socks on his feet were clean, suggesting he had not walked there on his own, prosecutors pointed out.

Creato was arrested and charged with murder three months later and has remained in the Camden County Jail on $750,000 bail.