The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘I KNEW NOBODY SAVED HIM’
Prosecutor asks father why he didn’t leave infant with family
MIDDLETOWN >> On the night his infant son died, Tony Moreno took the 7-month-old out of bed, put him in his stroller, got a blanket from the dryer, then packed his iPhone, iPod, a portable charger, earbuds, a knife and the boy’s pacifier, he testified Friday.
Upset about his relationship having ended with the baby’s mother, her refusal of two marriage proposals and her renewal of a friendship with an ex-boyfriend, the 23-year-old father intentionally dropped Aaden Moreno off the Arrigoni Bridge into the Connecticut River on July 5, 2015, killing the boy, prosecutors say.
Moreno then pulled himself over the 4-foot-high railing and leapt into the Connecticut River, fell 100 feet into the water and survived, according to police.
Moreno’s defense attorney, Norm Pattis, insists the infant’s death was an accident and the boy slipped from his client’s hands while he was showing the baby places along both sides of the shore that had become milestones in his relationship with the boy’s mother. Moreno told the Middlesex Superior Court jury this week that he still loved Adrianne Oyola that night, despite her moving out of his home. The two were coparenting their son.
“Did you bring a diaper
"You once told Adrianne you could make her and her son disappear at any time, didn’t you? You made Aaden disappear, didn’t you?" — State’s Attorney Peter McShane questioning defendant Tony Moreno during Moreno’s trial on Friday
bag?” State’s Attorney Peter McShane asked Friday, during the fifth day of the trial, referring to the night of July 5. Moreno said no. “Did you bring diapers? Did you bring a bottle? Any food?” McShane continued.
Again, Moreno replied in the negative.
He brought up the knife, Moreno has said, to commit suicide.
Moreno is accused of murder and risk of injury to a child, charges which, if convicted, could send him to prison for as long as 70 years.
Despite Moreno’s testimony that he had simply gone for a walk with the baby, struggling with thoughts of suicide as he had for years, and somewhere along the way decided to end his life, the state attempted to show Friday that Moreno intended all along to kill his son, then himself.
Earlier, Moreno took the stand as Pattis continued questioning that had ended abruptly the day prior — just at the point when Pattis asked his client if he had lost control of Aaden at the bridge railing, 100 feet in the air.
Facing the jury, Moreno, who had composed himself since Thursday’s emotional testimony, took the doll used as a stand-in for Aaden and stood with it at the makeshift railing as Pattis asked him to point toward the theater on the Middletown side, just as he had on July 5.
“What did you say to Aaden?” Pattis prompted Moreno.
“That his mom had made me sit through a dumb-Justin Bieber movie,” he said, adding that he told Aaden that, at that time, he was trying to get the baby’s mother to date him.
“What happened as you pointed at the theater?” Pattis asked.
“He moved . ... to straighten out his body,” Moreno replied, beginning to weep. That’s when Aaden tumbled into the water, he told the courtroom.
At the shock of the boy’s fall, Moreno panicked, dropped to the sidewalk, began to hyperventilate — or “freak out,” he testified.
Moreno, still crying, told Pattis, “I couldn’t make sense of what just happened.”
The following events happened very quickly, according to testimony. Moreno saw his mother pull up to the bridge in her SUV, then heard her and a police officer shouting his name. Next, Moreno’s brother got out of the vehicle and yelled for Moreno to please stop, he testified.
“I yelled and told him to stay away from me. .. I heard everybody yelling,” Moreno said, as he began sobbing on the stand.
That’s when he ran away from them and jumped over the railing and into the water, he told the courtroom.
The next thing Moreno remembers is waking up in the intensive care unit at Hartford Hospital with multiple injuries and Middletown Police Detective Dane Semper beside him, asking him to help police find his son in order to “give him a proper burial,” he said.
“Did you reach any conclusion then if Aaden was dead or alive?” Pattis asked Moreno.
“I knew nobody saved him,” Moreno told him.
McShane began his cross-examination, hammering the facts of Moreno’s earlier testimony, centering on his claim that he didn’t know how the infant had slipped into the river.
McShane asked Moreno if he had gone to dinner at Denny’s earlier that night with two female friends, who brought their children with them. He said yes.
Moreno went home and packed Aaden’s stroller, then left for a walk at 11 p.m., he told the jury.
The friend called him, he said, as he was out with the baby and they talked — but Moreno didn’t mention he was with Aaden.
“You hid the fact that you were taking your son Aaden on a walk at 11 p.m. on July 5, 2015?” McShane asked.
“Not really, no,” Moreno replied.
McShane pressed Moreno about why he hadn’t left Aaden with his brother, mother, godfather or anyone he knew along the 2.2mile route from his home to the Arrigoni Bridge.
“You never asked, ‘can you watch Aaden for a little?’ You never did that, did you?” McShane asked in an attempt to determine why Moreno brought Aaden to the bridge when he has testified that somewhere along the duration of his walk, Moreno made the decision to kill himself.
The prosecutor then had the court clerk project a screenshot of a letter on the far courtroom wall that Moreno had typed to Aaden. He never sent that note.
“You can’t look at it now, can you?” McShane asked, as Moreno, still on the stand, cried, his eyes cast down.
McShane had text after text between Moreno and Oyola, sent between 11:18 and 11:53 p.m., flashing on the screen. Messaging between the two began after Oyola had “rushed” Moreno off the phone when he called. Moreno testified he was seeking comfort from his dark thoughts.
Oyola’s brush-off annoyed Moreno, he testified.
As McShane read each text in staccato, asking Moreno, “Did you send this? Are these your words?” he questioned the defendant if he knew Oyola was in New London that night with an ex-boyfriend.
Moreno insisted he did not.
At 11:44 p.m., two minutes before police say they arrived at the bridge to see Moreno jump, he texted to Oyola, “you’re not a parent anymore.”
Moreno insisted to McShane that Aaden was still alive at that point.
“At 11:45, you typed, ‘he’s dead,’ when Adrianne asked, ‘Where’s Aaden?’ Was Aaden still alive at that point?”
“Yes,” Moreno told the prosecutor.
“Didn’t you tell Dr. Solomon you planned to take your life and Aaden’s life?” McShane queried, referring to the psychiatrist who examined Moreno in the hospital.
“It’s possible,” Moreno replied.
At 11:42 p.m., according to testimony, Moreno texted, “Enjoy your life without us now.”
“You added the word ‘now,’ didn’t you? Now. That’s because Aaden was in the water wasn’t he?” McShane asked, his voice rising.
No, Moreno replied.
McShane then pressed Moreno on why he didn’t try to rescue Aaden.
“Your son falls into the river and … you didn’t jump in and save him?” the prosecutor asked.
Moreno told the jury he was trying to figure out what happened and didn’t call 911.
After regaining consciousness in the hospital, it took awhile before Moreno could speak. McShane asked if he remembered asking that the television be put on. Moreno said he did.
He did not, however, ask anything about his son, McShane said.
“You never asked anyone where your son was, correct?”
Moreno said, “I didn’t need to.”
“You once told Adrianne you could make her and her son disappear at any time, didn’t you? You made Aaden disappear, didn’t you?” McShane asked.
“Inadvertently, yes,” Moreno replied. Pattis began his redirect. “Whose responsibility was it for Aaden to stay safe?” Moreno said it was his. “Did you fail?” Pattis asked. “Yes,” he said. “Did you intend to kill Aaden?” Pattis asked. “No,” Moreno insisted. After Moreno left the witness box, both the defense and state rested their cases. Closing arguments begin Tuesday.
Moreno trial, recent coverage
• Feb. 16: Baby alive before hitting water below Arrigoni Bridge, medical examiner says
• Feb. 15: Middletown jury hears text messages in man’s murder trial
• Feb. 14: Police: Middletown man never asked about baby after throwing him off bridge
• Feb. 10: Middletown jurors hear 911 call in murder trial involving baby tossed off bridge