Rachelle Bond recounted her daughter’s death in a court testimony Friday against accused murderer, Michael McCarthy.
Bella Bond's mother testified Friday in the trial of her daughter's accused killer, describing in graphic detail how her then boyfriend punched the 2-year-old in the stomach and then stuffed her body in a duffel bag so he could dispose of it.
Michael McCarthy, 37, is accused of killing Bella Bond in 2015 in the Dorchester apartment he shared with the girl's mother. Rachelle Bond pleaded guilty in February to being an accessory after the fact for helping McCarthy dispose of the young girl's body after he allegedly beat her to death.
Bond said in court Friday that she and McCarthy were watching a movie on TV on the night Bella died. Her daughter got out of bed two or three times, and eventually McCarthy went to to put her back to bed.[[425986024, C]]
"I didn't think he'd hurt her," Bond said, choking back tears. "I thought it would be all right."
After a few minutes, she said she went into her daughter's bedroom to see if McCarthy needed help.
"He punched her in the stomach," she said. "I just saw her bounce off the bed. She bounced up and came back down... I think I yelled, 'What the [expletive] did you do?'"[[425476094, C]]
She said she grabbed her daughter, who wasn't breathing, and attempted to give her CPR. "Her head was swollen and gray," Bond said.
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Bond also described Friday how McCarthy disposed of her daughter's body, placing the young girl in a duffel bag and driving her to the waterfront.
She said she told McCarthy, "You [expletive] killed her," and he replied, "It was her time to die. She was a demon."
Bond also testified Friday about her drug use and criminal history, saying she has used marijuana, heroin and crack cocaine at various times. She also revealed that she sold drugs and resorted to prostitution to get by on the streets.
She spoke of how she and McCarthy would do heroin together with Bella in the apartment with them. But she said she was still able to parent Bella, even while on heroin.
"She was always happy...," Bond said. "She was a pretty happy child."
Earlier on Friday, McCarthy's older brother, Joseph McCarthy Jr., testified about his brother's struggles with drug addiction and his interactions with Bella and her mother.
He said he last saw Bella in the third week of May 2015, about a month before her body was found washed ashore on Deer Island.
McCarthy Jr. described her as a "happy, well-adjusted" child. He said she always had clothes on, was not disheveled, bruised or abused, and "always had food."
Also on Friday, McCarthy's friend Michael Sprinsky wrapped up his testimony, describing the close relationship the two once had. It was his second day on the stand.
Sprinsky testified on Wednesday that McCarthy had an interest in the occult and "thought that he could remove demons from people's houses," and that McCarthy claimed he "had abilities to rid people of evil spirits."
"I've known Mike for a long time and he gets into these moods where there's a lot of dark stuff," Sprinksy had said. "Talking about evil spirits, talking about demons."
The defense has argued that it was Bond, and not McCarthy, who had an obsession with demons and spirituality. The defense added that Bond's testimony should not be believed because she had lied about her daughter's whereabouts after her death.
