A Massachusetts Superior Court judge denied a motion Friday afternoon to reduce Michael McCarthy’s second-degree murder conviction to manslaughter in the case of 2-year-old Bella Bond’s death. The judge said there was “ample evidence” to support the jury’s initial conclusion.
McCarthy, 37, is currently serving a life sentence after being found guilty in June 2017 of the second-degree murder of Bella Bond, his then-girlfriend Rachelle Bond’s daughter. In June 2015, the toddler’s body was found in a trash bag that had washed up on Deer Island.
McCarthy’s attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, said Bella Bond’s uncertain cause of death and the lack of a motive for McCarthy to commit said murder were among the reasons the legal standard of the case was more consistent with involuntary manslaughter than second-degree murder.
Judge Janet Sanders said the motion represented a “shift of position” for the defense. When involuntary manslaughter was considered at the initial trial, McCarthy’s defense objected to it and said there was not enough evidence to support such a charge.
Shapiro said this was a “different situation now” and that the difference between involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder is difficult for a jury to understand.
After listening to the prosecution’s argument that the conviction should be upheld, Sanders concluded McCarthy’s belief that Bella Bond was “possessed by demons” paired with testimony that he had locked her in a closet to punish her were acts of malice consistent with a second-degree murder verdict.
Sanders said she found no reason to resort to the measure of reducing the conviction and the session was adjourned.
Following the session, Shapiro spoke with reporters and said the defense’s position remains as it was at the trial — McCarthy did not commit Bella Bond’s murder, Rachelle Bond did. He said objecting to the involuntary manslaughter charge at trial “wasn’t a mistake at all” because it “was the truth.”
Shapiro said the next step for McCarthy lies in a pending appeal process that he said he was hopeful would prevail.
