Creato Girlfriend Tries To Take The Fifth At Murder Trial
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- Jurors at the David Creato murder trial heard from the defendant's girlfriend at the time 3-year-old Brendan died in October 2015.
Now, 19-year-old Julia Stensky invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during an hour-long hearing away from the jury.
But trial judge John Kelley, with Stensky's lawyer present, instructed her to testify.
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Stensky answered all questions with the jury present. She talked of how she considered breaking up with David, in part, because she did not want Brendan in her life.
"I was 17 at the time, I just didn't think I was ready for the responsibility of caring for another woman's toddler," she said.
She had even recommended that David surrender parental rights to the child's grandparents so they could spend more time together.
"I simply wanted Brendan to be with his grandparents or with his mother when I came down," Stensky said.
But there were also money issues and the fact David was jealous of other men she talked to at Pace University in New York where she attended college.
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On the day Brendan's body was found along the Cooper River, Stensky remembered getting several text messages and a couple voicemails from Creato and police. She traveled to Haddon Township later that day to provide a statement.
Under cross examination, Stensky conceded many of those fights she had with Creato may have stemmed from immaturity at the time. She also insisted she never asked Creato to dispose of the boy and that, in the end, he had been a good father to the child.
Close friend Kevin Kehs said the same and that a month before Brendan's death, Creato was thinking of dumping Stensky.