Man charged in ‘brutal, violent’ death of Cherry Hill veterinarian detained to await trial

In a fit of long-simmering, jealous rage, prosecutors say, Cristian Custodio-Aquino drove across the country from Oregon to New Jersey and lay in wait to kill Michael Anthony, his ex-boyfriend’s new partner.

Anthony, 45, a well-liked South Jersey veterinarian, was found with stab wounds to his body, neck, and head on the front lawn of his Cherry Hill home on Dec. 10, authorities said, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

An investigation led authorities to Custodio-Aquino after they linked him to a pair of prescription glasses found next to Anthony’s body and traced his car to the neighborhood on the morning of the slaying. Custodio-Aquino, a native of Peru who lived in Portland, Ore., fled to Fresno, Calif., prosecutors said, and was arrested there while staying at a friend’s house.

At a detention hearing Tuesday morning, Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Kevin Moran said there was no doubt about what happened: Custodio-Aquino, fueled by jealousy, carefully planned Anthony’s slaying, then drove across the country to kill him.

“This is a murder,” Moran said. “This was a brutal, violent attack. This defendant assassinated Dr. Michael Anthony.”

Custodio-Aquino’s attorney, Durann Neil Jr., said there was no evidence that his client had committed the crime. He said Custodio-Aquino had no criminal record and was not a danger to the community or a flight risk.

When Anthony did not return from his early morning walk in time to wake up his 16-year-old son, Moran said, the teen went to look for his father and saw him lying facedown on the lawn outside his home on Sharrowvale Road. Anthony’s partner, Kyle Bartsch, rushed to his side, the prosecutor said.

Investigators later found a pair of glasses left behind at the scene and traced them to the store where Custodio-Aquino had purchased them in Washington state.

Authorities also learned that he owned a black Nissan Altima that matched the description of a car seen entering Anthony’s neighborhood on the day he was killed and then driving away from the scene. DNA analysis of the car found traces of Anthony’s blood throughout, Moran said.

After fleeing, he said, Custodio-Aquino called a friend in Fresno and asked if he could stay with him. Investigators learned that Custodio-Aquino reset his phone four hours before Anthony was killed and later attempted to sell his car, he said.

Custodio-Aquino also searched for news articles about Anthony’s death and details on Anthony’s memorial service, and investigators also found social media images of Bartsch that he had searched for as well, Moran said.

After Custodio-Aquino’s February arrest, authorities said he knew Anthony and was “intimately acquainted” with Bartsch but declined to elaborate.

Bartsch, too, was circumspect, and said in an interview that he knew Custodio-Aquino but had not seen him for three years.

In court Tuesday, Moran said Custodio-Aquino and Bartsch had dated, but had ended their relationship and were living together as roommates when Bartsch started dating Anthony in 2021.

He said Custodio-Aquino and Bartsch got into what he described as a domestic dispute at a home they shared in Haddon Township in November 2021, but Custodio-Aquino’s lawyer, Neil, said that incident had no connection to or relevance in Anthony’s death.

Neil said that Custodio-Aquino had communicated with Bartsch before Anthony’s killing and that Anthony knew him as well. He said Anthony and Bartsch knew that Custodio-Aquino was back in town after moving to Portland.

“We believe the facts are going to show all of the parties knew my client was back,” Neil said. “There were discussions between the alleged victim, the alleged victim’s significant other, talk that my client was back in town.”

Custodio-Aquino, he said, had not harmed Anthony, and had not been tracking him.

“In no way was this some sort of stalking,” Neil said.

Throughout the hearing, Custodio-Aquino’s mother, Blanca Soledad Aquino, wiped tears away with a tissue as she listened to the prosecutor accuse her son of murder.

She declined to comment after the hearing, as did other relatives who gathered in the courtroom.

Anthony’s family declined to comment after the hearing.

Bartsch could not be reached for comment.

After hearing Moran and Neil’s arguments, Camden County Superior Court Judge Gwendolyn Blue ruled that prosecutors had met the threshold of probable cause for first-degree murder and ordered Custodio-Aquino detained to await trial.

Custodio-Aquino, wearing a red jail jumpsuit and his long hair tied back, spoke only twice to respond to the judge and did not visibly react to her decision to keep him in custody.

The death of Anthony, a divorced father of two, shook neighbors in the Barclay Farms section of Cherry Hill. Relatives described him as devoted to his family and two sons, and after his death, tributes poured in from friends, neighbors, and people whose pets he treated at his Haddon Heights vet clinic.