The murder trial of Michael P. McCarthy, the man accused of murdering a baby in the Boston area, continues today in Suffolk County Superior Court.
If the judge convenes court in open session, we will carry it live in the player above. Coverage is expected to be limited, however. No witness testimony is planned. The jury is planning to meet at 9 a.m. to view critical locations relevant to the case, including the beach where the baby’s body was found. Court will wrap early today at 1 p.m. A full day of testimony is planned for Friday.
A woman out walking her dog found the child’s body in a trash bag on Deer Island in Winthrop, Mass., in June 2015. The girl was known as “Baby Doe” on billboards and posters until she was identified months later as Bella Bond. Computer-enhanced images of what she probably looked like alive were showcased around the Boston area while authorities struggled to identify her.
The girl’s mother, Rachelle Bond, pleaded guilty to helping dispose of her daughter’s body. She will testify against her ex-boyfriend McCarthy as part of a plea agreement.
McCarthy has claimed he had no involvement with the little girl’s disappearance. He claims that when he stopped seeing Bella, the girl’s mother told him the little girl was taken away by child services officials, just as her other two children had.
Joseph Amoroso, Bella’s father, plans to attend the entire trial. He was living in Florida when the girl disappeared.
Prosecutors say McCarthy killed the baby and stored her body in a refrigerator in the apartment he shared with the mother. Later, the girl’s body was thrown into the water from a South Boston beach, they claim. The body eventually washed ashore.
Prosecutors also say Rachelle Bond saw McCarthy punch the little girl over and over again one night when she wouldn’t go to sleep. He punched Bella until she died, prosecutors say, though Bond claims she only thought the girl was injured.
Rachelle Bond also claims McCarthy told her the baby was possessed by a “demon” and that it was “her time to die.” One of McCarthy’s lifelong friends, Michael Sprinsky, an admitted drug user, said that he discussed the occult with the defendant, that the defendant researched the occult, and that the defendant thought he could rid people of demons.
Defense attorneys, however, forced Sprinsky to also admit that both the mother and the defendant punished the baby for failing to disclose which demons were inside her.