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Raleigh man pleads guilty to murdering 2-year-old son

The Raleigh father who confessed in early 2015 to smothering his 2-year-old son the day after Christmas 2014 pleaded guilty on Friday to the murder.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — The Raleigh father who confessed to smothering his 2-year-old around Christmas 2014 pleaded guilty on Friday to the murder.

Steven Daniel Blue pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, secretly disposing of a child's body, conspiracy to dispose of a child's body and felony obstruction of justice. Tristan Blue's body was recovered from Falls Lake on Dec. 26, 2014.

Steven Blue was sentenced to at least 33 years in prison.

In court on Friday, Assistant District Attorney Deborah Shandles said an autopsy of Tristan Blue's body showed evidence of blunt force trauma, cutting, burning and possible asphyxiation.

"There had been multiple fractures of the child's body, there were extensive sharp cuts of the skin on the arm and evidence of burning," Shandles said. "They were not able to determine if that was pre or post mortem."

Shandles said Steven Blue went on to further mutilate and destroy the child's body.

"(He) put the remains in trash bags, and then a plastic container and weighted it with a cinder block and threw it into the water," she said.

The boy's mother, Briana Loriel Dangerfield, was also arrested and charged in connection with Tristan's death.

Shandles said Steven Blue confessed in early 2015, and then told investigators he had snapped when he was tired and his son wouldn't stop crying, but then changed his story and pointed his finger at Dangerfield.

"She had killed Tristan because he was a demon and that he, the defendant, needed to burn the body and dispose of it so that it couldn't be found," Shandles said.

Dangerfield is facing multiple charges, including accessory after the fact to murder.

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