No Bail For Man Charged With Killing Bella Bond
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — The man charged with killing 2-year-old Bella Bond was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Monday.
Michael McCarthy pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder indictment in Suffolk Superior Court.
McCarthy is accused of killing his girlfriend's daughter, who was known for months as "Baby Doe" after her body washed up on Deer Island in June.
Her mother, Rachelle Bond, is accused of helping McCarthy conceal her daughter's body. She pleaded not guilty last week to being an accessory after the fact to murder and is being held on $1 million cash bail.
At McCarthy's arraignment Monday, prosecutor David Deakin described what Rachelle Bond claims she saw after McCarthy allegedly punched the girl to death.
"She saw the defendant sort of half-standing, half-kneeling over the prone girl who was on either the ground or a mattress on the ground and he was moving his arms rapidly around the area of her mid-section," Deakin said.
The prosecution said the couple stole weights from McCarthy's father's Quincy plumbing business and used them to weigh down the baby's body when they threw her in Boston Harbor.
Deakin also claimed McCarthy sent Rachelle Bond a text when she was in housing court after Bella's death, saying, "Whatever you do, don't tell them about Bella."
McCarthy's lawyer Jonathan Shapiro criticized the state's case Monday, saying it's based entirely on the word of Rachelle Bond.
Shapiro said his client knows nothing about the girl's death and claims Bond told him her daughter had been taken away by the state child protection agency.
"She lied about it for months to everybody who she talked to and when she finally realized that she could no longer lie about it, she came up with a story that pointed the finger at Mr. McCarthy," Shapiro told reporters outside court.
The defense attorney said despite several searches of the couple's home, investigators never found any forensic evidence linking McCarthy to the baby's murder.
"According to the autopsy, there were no broken bones or injuries around Bella's midsection, and there were no traumatic injuries whatsoever, to her head," Shapiro said.
McCarthy is due back in court February 16.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports
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