CAMDEN, N.J. _ A mistrial was declared Wednesday in the case of David "D.J." Creato Jr., the Haddon Township father accused of killing his 3-year-old son, Brendan, after a jury couldn't agree on a verdict.
Creato, 23, displayed little emotion upon hearing the decision.
"DJ's upset. He wanted to go home today. He wanted to be with his family," Creato's attorney, Richard J. Fuschino Jr., said in a news conference outside the Camden County courthouse.
The county prosecutor's office intends to retry the case, according to a news release Wednesday afternoon. Fuschino had expected that _ "They put a lot of resources into the investigation, and they spent six weeks trying the case, I just don't anticipate that they'll walk away from it" _ but he said he would enter a new trial with the advantage of seeing how the prosecution presented its case. He declined to say whether he would alter his strategy.
Assistant prosecutor Christine Shah, who tried the case, declined to comment Wednesday.
The judge scheduled a July 5 hearing to consider next steps, which could include a new trial.
Creato was returned to jail, where he is being held on $750,000 bail. Fuschino said he would seek lower bail for his client.
Judge John T. Kelley had ordered jurors to keep deliberating after they informed him late Tuesday afternoon they were struggling to reach a verdict. They met for less than two hours Wednesday before informing the judge they still could not agree on a verdict.
"The nature of a hung jury suggests that they can't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt," Fuschino said, "so that's why I think that very well-intentioned people disagree on this, but 12 people couldn't say guilty."
The jury had spent hours re-examining evidence, including video of Creato reacting to news of Brendan's death _ which they watched four times _ and audio of the 911 call Creato made to report Brendan missing.
The jury started with 11 women and three men before two of the women were randomly selected as alternates, leaving the remaining jurors to deliberate. After the mistrial was announced, jurors left the courtroom through a back entrance.
Samantha Denoto, Brendan's mother, declined to comment after the judge dismissed the jury.
"I was advised not to comment," Creato's father, David Sr., said after walking out of the courtroom.
Prosecutors had argued Creato killed Brendan to stop his girlfriend, who demanded she be Creato's No. 1 priority, from leaving him.
The defense argued that Creato was the victim of a flawed police investigation and that authorities had no direct evidence _ only circumstantial _ to link Creato to his son's death.
Brendan's pajama-clad body was found slumped over a rock and partially submerged in a creek in woods about three-quarters of a mile from Creato's apartment on Oct. 13, 2015. Brendan had on no shoes but was wearing clean socks, which suggest someone had placed him there, prosecutors said.
The mystery has gripped Haddon Township, where many residents hung black and blue ribbons on their homes to honor Brendan.
As they learned of the mistrial late Wednesday morning, Creato's Haddon Township neighbors had mixed reactions. Some were surprised by the non-verdict, while others said they had expected a hung jury.
One neighbor, Carol DeAngelo, 48, said she was anticipating a not guilty verdict based on the evidence presented in trial. She said she's been friends with the Creato family for years and doesn't believe that DJ would have done anything to hurt his son.
But Jean Callahan, 60, said she was expecting a guilty verdict before Wednesday.
"From what I saw, who else could have done it? I feel they have the right person," she said. "Everyone I've talked to felt that he did it."
Kayley Coulter, 31, said she wasn't surprised by the mistrial but added that she was disappointed.
"I know there's a lot of people who are upset because there's a 3-year-old who lost his life, and nobody's paying the consequences for it," she said. "Whether it was neglect or murder or whatever the case may be, somebody is responsible."
Three hours before a police dog tracked the boy's scent and helped find the body, Creato had called 911 to report Brendan missing, saying he woke up and the boy was gone.
Police sent a reverse 911 call about the disappearance to residents, who poured into the streets to search yards, cars, and inside plastic Halloween pumpkins.
From the start, the prosecution lacked a key piece of evidence: The cause of death.
Three medical examiners ruled Brendan had died of "homicidal violence" but couldn't determine whether drowning, strangulation, or smothering _ each of which can deprive the brain of oxygen _ caused Brendan's death.
Assistant Prosecutor Shah suggested in her closing statement that Creato had smothered Brendan with a pillow as the boy slept on a living room couch in Creato's apartment. Shah said smothering could leave little to no evidence.
Fuschino said prosecutors were grasping at straws to implicate someone in Brendan's death and that they had failed to prove Creato was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Fuschino suggested Brendan could have accidentally locked himself out of Creato's apartment and wandered outdoors, where someone nefarious could have grabbed him.
He ripped Camden County Medical Examiner Gerald Feigin, who took the stand in early May, for being unable to determine where Brendan died _ in the woods or elsewhere _ at what time he died, or who was responsible for his death.
The prosecution sought to establish motive by reading jurors thousands of text messages between Creato and his former girlfriend, Julia Stensky, 19. Creato met her on the dating app Tinder in June 2015, when she was 17.
The messages showed Creato initially defending Brendan, whom Stensky called a "mistake," but later telling Stensky he would do anything for her, particularly as their relationship deteriorated.
Prosecutors said Creato was jealous that Stensky was talking to other men at Pace University in New York City, which she began attending in the fall of 2015, several months after she and Creato met.
Stensky was in New York when Brendan died, authorities said. She has not been charged.
Brendan's mother, Samantha Denoto, shared custody of Brendan with Creato but did not live with Creato.
At the request of investigators, Denoto secretly recorded a conversation with Creato about a month after Brendan died. Creato suggested spirits had lured Brendan to the woods near South Park Drive and Cooper Street. Denoto testified that she found Creato's reasoning "odd and unexplainable."
Stensky told investigators she and Creato had visited the woods 20 to 30 times, including two days before Brendan was found dead.
Creato was arrested three months after Brendan's death. Some residents kept their children indoors more often during those months, fearing a killer was on the streets.
