'Baby Doe' Trial Underway In Boston

Opening statements began Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court in the murder trial of Michael McCarthy, the man accused of killing 2-year-old Bella Bond.

Bella was once only known as "Baby Doe" after her body was found stuffed in a trash bag on Deer Island off of Winthrop. The girl's mother, Rachelle Bond, agreed to a plea deal in exchange for her testimony against her boyfriend, McCarthy. He has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder charges.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney David Deakin said in opening statements that McCarthy was obsessed with the occult — and that Bond found him hitting the toddler on the night she died.

"When [Rachelle] asked him, 'What did you do?' he said, 'She just died. It was her time. She was a demon,' " said Deakin.

Defense Attorney Jonathan Shapiro cast McCarthy as a caring man, who had a purely scholarly interest in good and evil.

"According to the prosecutor, this obsession gave Michael a motive to kill Bella. That he killed her because he believed she was a demon. That is absurd," said Shapiro.

Witness testimony continues Wednesday.

Susan Zalkind, reporter covering the Bella Bond murder case for The Daily Beast. She tweets @susanzalkind.