A Garden State man whose 4-year-old son shot and killed a 6-year-old neighbor was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday for endangering the welfare of children by keeping unsecured firearms, authorities said.
Anthony Senatore, 35, of Toms River pleaded guilty in October and his sentence was part of a deal negotiated with prosecutors, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.
On April 8, 2013, Senatore’s son found a loaded .22 caliber rifle in his father’s bedroom and shot Brandon Holt in the head, prosecutors said. Holt died the following day at Jersey Shore University Medical Center.
Senatore was found to have five unsecured guns that were accessible to his children, prosecutors said.
Members of the dead boy’s family filled the Ocean County Superior Court courtroom for the sentencing, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Senatore apologized to them: “Brandon is in my first thought each day.”
He called the shooting “one horrible mistake, one terrible lapse in judgment” and also said, “I am not a monster as some have portrayed me,” the Inquirer reported.
Brandon Holt’s brother, Skylar Watins, 19, also spoke in court: “You destroyed me and my family.
“And worst of all, my brother’s life,” he said, according to the newspaper.