Witness: Accused "Baby Doe" killer was into "a lot of dark stuff"

BOSTON -- A childhood friend of the Massachusetts man accused of killing his then-girlfriend's young daughter says the defendant believed he could drive demons out of a person's home.

He was into "a lot of dark stuff," said Michael Sprinsky, who testified Wednesday at Michael McCarthy's murder trial, reports CBS Boston.

McCarthy is charged with first-degree murder in the death of two-year-old Bella Bond, whose body was found washed up on a Boston Harbor island inside a trash bag in June 2015. The girl was known only as Baby Doe for months as authorities struggled to identify her, and a composite image was shared millions of times on social media in a massive publicity campaign. 

On Wednesday, jurors listened as McCarthy's friend, Sprinsky, told them that McCarthy had been obsessed with the occult for the last eight to ten years, according to CBS Boston.

Sprinsky said he's known McCarthy for about three decades, and said he lived with McCarthy, McCarthy's girlfriend Rachelle Bond, and her daughter Bella for two weeks – but left because he was disturbed by McCarthy's occult interests.

During opening statements Tuesday, McCarthy's lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, rejected the prosecution's claim that McCarthy killed the girl because he believed she had become possessed by a demon. The defense attorney says it was the girl's mother, Rachelle Bond, who wrote about children possessed by demons.

"She was projecting her own delusions onto Michael McCarthy," Shapiro said. "She blamed him for what she in fact did."

Prosecutor David Deakin, however, alleged McCarthy beat the child to death and then dumped her body in the waters of South Boston, threatening to kill Rachelle Bond if she told anyone about the death. The couple had been living together at the time.

"If you tell anyone, I will kill you… She just died. It was her time. She was a demon," Deakin said McCarthy told Rachelle Bond.

"Baby Doe" wasn't identified as Bella Bond until till three months after her body was found, when prosecutors say Rachelle Bond told Sprinsky that McCarthy had killed the child, and Sprinsky came forward to police. Deakin said Rachelle Bond didn't tell anyone about the death earlier because she was afraid of McCarthy.

Rachelle Bond has agreed to testify for the prosecution and has pleaded guilty to helping dispose of the child's body.