Parents of boy who shot and killed 6-year-old friend must pay family $572K

Anthony and Melissa Senatore were found liable in the shooting death of 6-year-old Brandon Holt for leaving a loaded .22-caliber rifle under their bed Watch video

TOMS RIVER -- A Superior Court judge ordered the parents of a preschooler who shot his 6-year-old neighbor to death with a loaded shotgun they kept under their bed to pay more than $570,000 to the dead boy's parents.

The $572,588.26 award Monday to Christine and Ronald Holt was Judge Robert Brenner's finding in the wrongful death suit the former Toms River couple brought against Anthony and Melissa Senatore in 2013 shooting death of their son Brandon Holt.

Anthony Senatore has not disputed leaving his loaded rifle under his bed before the April 8, 2013, shooting so Brenner was left to determine how much Senatore and his wife should have to pay the Holts for the services and companionship Brandon would have provided his parents in the future, for his pain and suffering before his death and for the family's unpaid medical and funeral expenses.

Brenner found Anthony Senatore 90 percent responsible for Brandon's death and Melissa Senatore 10 percent negligent because, he said, she should have known the weapon was under the bed. Photographs of the dark wood floor under the Senatores' bed showed it was not dusty and appeared to have been cleaned at some point.

Melissa Senatore was not in court and has not responded to the lawsuit, but Brenner said she still would be held responsible for her share of the judgment.

Anthony Senatore pleaded guilty to child endangerment in October 2014 and was sentenced in February 2015 to three years in prison. Under New Jersey's sentencing guidelines, he served nine months of that term before being released on parole.

Brandon, who lived two houses away from the Senatores on McCormick Drive in Toms River, was playing "pretend shooting" with the Senatores' 4-year-old son on April 8, 2013, when the younger boy grabbed his father's gun and shot his friend in the head outside the Senatores' rented house. Brandon died the following day at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

The trial, which lasted slightly less than two hours, included tearful testimony from Christine Holt, who described finding her son struggling to breathe after one of the Senatore told her Brandon was hurt. She said she didn't know he had been shot until she arrived at the hospital.

She described how she tried to comfort him as he lay on the seat of the Senatores' golf cart. His eyes were open, he was bleeding from his mouth and he was gasping for air, she said.

"I was rubbing his legs, telling him to breathe," she said. "I kept telling him I loved him."

Father of boy, 4, who shot and killed 6-year-old friend sentenced to prison

Anthony Senatore testified he told Ronald Holt that the boy was shot with his rifle, but Ronald Holt adamantly denied Senatore said anything about the weapon.

"I asked him what happened and he said his eye got grazed by a pellet gun," Holt said.

"Isn't it true he told you your son was shot with a .22 (caliber) rifle," Senatore's attorney, Robert Ebberup asked him on cross-examination.

"No," Holt shot back.

Ebberup asked if it was possible Holt could have missed that comment in all the commotion.

"What I heard? What he told me? I know what he said," Holt replied.

Brenner still has to rule on punitive damages against the Senatores but he said it would be based on their ability to pay. He gave the attorneys 30 days to determine the Senatores' financial assets.

Since the shooting, the Senatores have moved to Pine Beach and the Holts have moved to the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township. They have an 18-month-old son and Christine Holt started a charitable organization called "Brandon's Elves" to provide children in Ocean County's social services programs with Christmas gifts.

, served as the judge and jury in the civil trial, which lasted slightly less than two hours and involved only three witnesses - Senatore and Christine and Ronald Holt.

The trial was much shorter than the average wrongful death case because Senatore did not dispute his responsibility in Brandon's death and because the Senatores, as renters, had no homeowners insurance that would have involved another party.