Live testimony resumes today in the murder trial of Michael P. McCarthy. He’s accused of murdering his girlfriend’s two-year-old child, hiding the little girl’s body in a fridge, and then dumping the little girl’s body in Boston harbor. A passer-by walking a dog eventually found the badly decomposed body of the girl, whom authorities struggled to identify.
She was at first known as “Baby Doe” on billboards and posters. Later, Michael Sprinsky, a lifelong friend of the defendant’s, made the connection: Baby Doe was really Bella Bond. He testified that Rachelle Bond, the girl’s mother, told him that the defendant murdered Bella. McCarthy and Rachelle Bond were living together at the time.
Rachelle Bond began to testify on Friday; her testimony is expected to continue first thing Monday morning.
Rachelle Bond’s testimony included admissions to at least fifteen prior charges of drug use, larceny, unauthorized motor vehicle use, and performing sexual conduct for a fee over a six-year period. Her testimony included more than an hour of discussion about a rough life on the streets. She bounced from tents to homeless shelters, she said, opting for the latter when she became pregnant with Bella.
She also testified about her plea agreement, which independent observers have considered extraordinarily lenient: in return for truthful testimony against Michael McCarthy, she pleaded guilty to larceny over $250 (for continuing to cash government benefits checks for Bella’s care after Bella had died) and for being an accessory after the fact to Bella’s murder (for helping dispose of the girl’s body). Her punishment is jail time served and a two-year probation.
Rachelle Bond testified that she and Bella’s father were doing drugs together and sleeping with one another in tents in the Boston area. She testified to using Suboxone and Heroin at the Occupy Boston protest. That’s about the time she became pregnant with Bella in November 2011. She was arrested on outstanding warrants in other cases and spent some time in jail while she was pregnant for Bella. From there, she lived in a couple of Boston family shelters. she described the birth of Bella on August 6, 2012, as an “ecstatic” moment in her life.
She described family drama within the family of Joseph Amoroso, Bella’s father, which ultimately ended contact between her and the father and the father’s family. Prior to that, she said she texted photos of Bella to Amoroso.
Eventually, she moved into an apartment with Bella. There, she sometimes sold prescription medication in order to pay for toys and clothes for Bella.
She said the defendant, Michael McCarthy, met her outside a pharmacy. He was hustling for prescription drugs; he assumed she had some. She didn’t hear from him for nearly a year, but he then got a hold of her, again looking for drugs.
She eventually testified about Bella’s death. She claimed to have left the room for a while, and upon returning, she came back to see McCarthy punch Bella so hard that her body bounced off of the bed she was lying upon. She described Bella as “swollen” and “gray” at that point. Rachelle Bond said she tried to do CPR on Bella, but it didn’t work. She says McCarthy then grabbed her by the throat with both hands and threatened to kill her. She testified she then went to the bathroom, fell asleep, and when she woke up, McCarthy injected heroin into her neck. She went back to sleep, then put the little girl’s body in a bag. She and McCarthy drove to the water. She saw weights in the back of the car and remembered seeing “columns” leading up from the water.
McCarthy has claimed he had no involvement with the little girl’s disappearance. He claims that when he stopped seeing Bella, Rachelle Bond told him the little girl was taken away by child services officials, just as her other two children had.
Amoroso, Bella’s father, plans to attend the entire trial. He was living in Florida when the girl disappeared.
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