McCarthy must serve 20 years minimum for Bella Bond murder
The ex-addict convicted of killing Dorchester toddler Bella Bond will have to wait 20 years before he can petition for parole, a judge ruled yesterday.
Michael P. McCarthy, 37, was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence after being convicted of second-degree murder Monday. The standard period of eligibility for parole is 15 years.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet L. Sanders also refused to delay McCarthy’s relocation from protective custody at Nashua Street Jail to state prison. McCarthy’s defense team had requested a two-week stay in order to arrange for safe accommodations.
“I think being one of the most notorious people in the commonwealth, having been convicted of killing a child, he has reason to be concerned,” defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro said later.
Shapiro complained about the judge as well.
“The imposition of a 20year minimum by the judge just reflected what has been her bias from the very beginning until the very end,” he said.
Sanders told the court that although “it’s certainly hard to predict what kind of person (McCarthy will) be more than a decade from now, in light of the vulnerability of the victim, the circumstances that surrounded the coverup of her death, I have determined that he should not be parole-eligible for at least 20 years.”
McCarthy did not speak at his sentencing hearing.
“He’s angry,” Shapiro said. “He knows he’s innocent.”
Rachelle Bond, the mother of the slain 2-year-old, did not submit a victim impact statement. She is currently incarcerated and will be sentenced on July 12 for being an accessory after the fact to her child’s June 2015 murder.
“There are no winners here. There’s no reason for joy,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. “We all have to remember that a little, nearly 3-yearold girl is dead. She was brutally murdered and she was discarded like trash. Our hearts go out to those who cared for her, and sadly, it wasn’t that many.”
Joseph Amoroso, 34, of Lynn, the recovering addict who fathered Bella in an Occupy Boston tent but never met her, was the only family to speak for the little girl in the end.
Praising his daughter as “a gift from God,” Amoroso told Sanders, “Bella was, still is, and always will be in my heart and soul. I was robbed of my chance to be a father to Bella. No verdict changes that and no justice on earth fixes that grief.”
Amoroso said outside the court he has no intention of ever reconnecting with Bond, who he dated when both were homeless on the streets of Boston. “All I can say is God be with her. I don’t plan on talking to her ever again.”