Defense Challenges Mother's Testimony In Bella Bond Murder Trial
BOSTON (CBS) -- The trial of a man accused of killing a 2-year-old girl once known only as "Baby Doe" continued Tuesday, with the defense trying to poke holes in the story the girl's mother told to the court.
More: Read Christina Hager's tweets live from court
Rachelle Bond returned to the witness stand for her third day of testimony in the trial of Michael McCarthy, her daughter's accused killer.
Rachelle says McCarthy, her ex-boyfriend, killed her daughter, Bella Bond. McCarthy, 37, is charged with first-degree murder in Bella's death.
Prosecutors say McCarthy struck and killed her because he was obsessed with the occult and believed she was a "demon." The defense, however, claims Rachelle Bond killed her daughter.
Defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro continued grilling Rachelle about inconsistencies between her testimony and her initial interview with police upon her arrest.
Rachelle admitted she made "a few mistakes" in her interviews with police, including telling them she hadn't used drugs when she had.
"So when you told police that you had been clean for five years, that just wasn't true, was it?" Shapiro asked her.
Shapiro asked her Tuesday morning why she didn't fight back against McCarthy the night he allegedly killed her daughter.
"I tried to, at first," she said. "I tried to push him off--I had my daughter in my arms, first. She fell out of my arms when he choked me. I tried to push him off, he's a much bigger person than I am. He overpowered me."
She described the days following Bella's death as being filled with continued drug use, blackouts, and threats from McCarthy.
"After he got rid of her, I told him, you know, this is gonna come up, this isn't gonna go away," she said. "And he was like, 'If you say anything, I'll just have you killed'."
She also said McCarthy injected her with heroin repeatedly. Shapiro asked her why she wasn't worried that he would give her an overdose, to which she responded, "I don't know if at that time I really cared if I died."
In court Monday, Rachelle said she was "ashamed" she hadn't told authorities about her daughter's murder--but said the reason she didn't tell anyone was that McCarthy had threatened to kill her.
Shapiro says that during her first interview with police following her arrest, Rachelle made up another story for police--about McCarthy wrapping Bella's body in bags and placing her in the refrigerator.
Without the jury present, defense attorneys questioned Rachelle about her journal entries to try to show she was strong, experienced with violence, and likely not scared of McCarthy.
The judge ruled those journal entries were inadmissible because they were from such a long time ago.
Prosecutors believe the defense will also try to use Facebook posts written by Rachelle against her.
After Bella was killed, Rachelle said McCarthy put her body into a duffel bag with weights and threw it into Boston Harbor. She pleaded guilty to helping him, and agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for that guilty plea. As a result, she could walk free on time served at the end of the trial.
Before the defense's cross-examination of Rachelle could continue Tuesday morning, a special witness was called in to testify about the barbells found in the bag Bella's body was allegedly dumped in.
Emil Traettino, a representative from the company that manufactured those barbells, flew in from Pennsylvania. He said the weights were decades old.
Bella's biological father, Joe Amoroso, could also take the stand Tuesday. Rachelle said he came looking for the daughter he'd never met, though unknown to him, she had been dead for months.
Rachelle said she told him she was with her godparents at the time.
