Michael McCarthy Trial: Massachusetts Man Found Guilty Of Murdering Partner’s 2-Year-Old Daughter

A Massachusetts man was convicted of second-degree murder Monday after he was found guilty of murdering his partner’s two-year-old daughter, reports said. Identified as Michael McCarthy, the accused was charged with the murder of Bella Bond, nicknamed Baby Doe after her unidentified body washed up on a Boston beach June 25, 2015.

Nearly three months after Baby Doe went missing, her decomposed body was found wrapped in a plastic bag on the shore of Deer Island, Boston in September 2015. Her body was kept unidentified in a morgue, making her the subject of a national campaign, during which she was given the name Baby Doe.

Read: 'Baby Doe' Bella Bond Murder Trial Update: Everything We Know As Closing Arguments Begin

Baby Doe's case went a step further when her mother, Rachelle Bond, along with McCarthy was arrested in September 2015 after she confessed to a friend about killing the toddler, the Boston Herald reported. Her friend, who recognized Baby Doe as Bella Bond informed the police about her, following which they registered a case against both Rachelle Bond and McCarthy.

After her arrest, Rachelle pleaded not guilty stating that McCarthy had gone to the toddler’s room on the night of her death to lay her down. However, five minutes later when she entered the room, she saw McCarthy punching the baby in the stomach.

“I saw her bounce on the bed,” Rachelle said in her testimony, adding that she tried to perform CPR on her daughter. She also told the court that Baby Doe’s “head was swollen and gray” after McCarthy hit her.

She also told the court how McCarthy violently attacked her when she tried to rescue her daughter from him, ABC News reported.

During the trial of the case, prosecutors said that McCarthy was dating Rachelle at the time of the murder. They argued that McCarthy punched Baby Doe to death at the victim’s home accusing her of being a ‘demon’ and stuffing her body in the refrigerator, before abandoning it on the beach.

Read: Who Is Michael McCarthy? Alleged Killer Of ‘Demon’ Toddler Bella Bond On Trial

After the jury convicted McCarthy, his attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, said he will appeal against his client’s conviction in a superior court. However, he declined to further comment on it. “An innocent man is going to prison for the rest of his life for a crime that she (Rachelle) committed,” Shapiro said. “The verdict was a travesty of justice.”

Shapiro, while presenting his client’s case in the court, accused Rachelle of lying in front of the jury and called her statements “a web of lies.”

"Rachelle Bond made up the story she told you," he said. "The story she told was clearly made up to cover her own guilt,” CNN reported.

Col. Richard D. McKeon, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police too testified in the court during the trial. "The verdict cannot bring Bella back, and cannot change the fact that she was failed — colossally and tragically — by the adults in her life. But the verdict is right, and justice has been rightly served upon the person who took this beautiful child’s life," he said in a statement.

McCarthy faces life in prison and could be eligible for a parole after 15 years, the Boston Herald reported.