Michael McCarthy Is Found Guilty of Killing Bella Bond

Photo via AP

Michael McCarthy is guilty of killing Bella Bond. That’s what a jury has decided Monday morning, two years after the child’s body was found washed up on the shores of Deer Island in a trash bag and touched off a months long search for her identity, and who was responsible for her death.

McCarthy, who was Bond’s mother Rachelle Bond’s boyfriend, was found guilty on a charge of second-degree murder. The verdict came after five days of deliberation.

His defense had sought from the beginning to argue that McCarthy was a loving caretaker and that it was, in fact, Bond’s mother who killed her.

The trial included heart-wrenching testimony from Bond, who said McCarthy had spoken about the child as if she were possessed by a demon and had beaten her to death one night in 2015, then later heaving her into the water in South Boston. Bond had previously pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of the murder for her role in concealing the child’s death and hiding her body, a well as a larceny charge for continuing to accept benefits for her daughter.

McCarthy has not yet been sentenced.