Slain Newburgh Boy's Dad: Accused Killer Should Be 'Put To Death'

NEW YORK (CBS 2/WCBS 880) -- The man long suspected of being Marc Bookal's killer was charged with murder Wednesday afternoon in the death of the 4-year-old Orange C0unty boy.

District Attorney Frank Phillips said Byrd, the boyfriend of Bookal's mother, has been charged with four counts of homicide and two counts of tampering with physical evidence.

"Obviously a very tragic event when anybody dies as a result of a homicide, compounded extraordinarily when that victim is 4 years of age," he told reporters including WCBS 880's Catherine Cioffi.

WCBS 880's Catherine Cioffi gets the details on the charges from the Orange County D.A.

Phillips said Bookal died as a result of "blunt force trauma" and "numerous injuries" throughout his body and head.

The young boy's biological father spoke with CBS 2's Lou Young spoke Wednesday and vowed to be at the Byrd's murder trial.

"Even if I lose my job, [I've] got be there. If I have be at the court, I don't care, I got to be there for my son. I got to represent him. He's dead, he can't represent himself," Yul Bookal said.

"He's just an evil [expletive]. He need to be put to death. I wish New York had the death penalty," the boy's father told Young.

Authorities said the reason for the child's killing remained a mystery.

"At this point motive is speculative as it is in most homicide cases. There is no rational explanation for causing the death of a 4 year-old child," Phillips said.

The young boy disappeared in December of 2009. His remains were found last March.

The parents and friends of the little boy held his funeral on April 23, 2010, four months after his disappearance.

Police believed the child was murdered before Christmas, but the remains weren't discovered until after the weather warmed and snow melted.

Byrd was seen with Bookal in the last image anyone had seen of the boy – a surveillance video taken days before Christmas. Byrd claimed the child vanished, but his past record of child abuse and reluctance to cooperate with police made them skeptical.

"What could a little four-year-old boy have done to make you kill him?" Yul Bookal said at the funeral last year. "I'm trying to make sense out of it, but it makes no sense."