Foster mother found guilty in slaying of 3-year-old nephew
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, May 17, 2008
By John Castellucci
Journal Staff Writer
http://www.projo.com/news/content/BUNNELL_TRIAL_17_05-17-08_T3A60SD_v27.3653e3c.html
PROVIDENCE –– If Thomas “T.J.” Wright were alive today, he would
be in
kindergarten or the first grade, an energetic little boy who, when the
radio was turned on, would get up and dance around the room.
But, on Oct. 30, 2004, 3-year-old T.J. was beaten so brutally he was
taken unconscious to Hasbro Children’s Hospital, where he was declared
brain dead and taken off life sup****t a day later.
Yesterday, one of the people accused of taking part in the fatal
beating, T.J.’s foster parent and aunt, Katherine Bunnell, was found
guilty in Superior Court of murder and murder conspiracy.
The jury returned the verdict after 2½ days of deliberation, just as the
jurors’ lunch was being delivered to the courthouse, before 12:30 p.m.
Bunnell, who — with her boyfriend, Gilbert Delestre — is accused of
beating T.J. to death, didn’t break down, as she did almost every day
during her bail hearing three years ago. But she looked stricken and her
shoulders heaved as the verdict was read.
The verdict was a cliffhanger. When Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia’s clerk,
Stephen McCarthy, asked the jury foreman how the jury had found the
defendant on Count 1, first-degree murder, the foreman replied, “Not
guilty.”
Then McCarthy asked how the jury found the defendant on Count 1B ––
the
lesser charge of second-degree murder.
“Guilty,” the foreman replied.
That one degree of difference will make a considerable difference when
Indeglia sentences Bunnell, a Woonsocket High School dropout who had two
children of her own and became the foster parent of three of her
sister’s children by the time she was 20.
A first-degree murder conviction would have exposed Bunnell to the
possibility of life in prison without parole. Second-degree murder
carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison, with parole
eligibility after 20 years. Murder conspiracy carries a maximum sentence
of 10 years.
Defense attorney Gerard H. Donley said he and Bunnell were
“disappointed, very disappointed” with the verdict, but grateful that
the jury hadn’t found her guilty of first-degree murder.
He accused the attorney general’s office of overcharging the defendant.
“I don’t think she’s guilty of anything except the inappropriate,
shameful punishment of a 3-year-old,” he said.
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said Bunnell should have been found
guilty of first-degree murder, although he understood how the jury,
swayed by defense arguments and feelings of sympathy for the defendant,
could have come back with the lesser verdict.
He rejected Donley’s assertion that Bunnell had been overcharged.
“She was responsible for a young child’s life. She was involved in
snuffing it out in the most brutal manner that I’ve seen in my time in
office,” Lynch said.
“She was a vicious person. She should pay the ultimate penalty, and we
will argue that with great force.”
Bunnell, 24, is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced July 16.
She testified during the trial that she only slapped T.J. lightly on the
face, pouring a container of milk over his head to “discipline” him
after she and Delestre returned to their Woonsocket apartment from a
night out 3½ years ago and found a mess that the toddler had made on the
living-room floor.
But the toddler’s injuries weren’t consistent with a few light slaps.
The medical examiner’s office found that T.J. died as a result of blows
that broke the large bone in his upper left leg, covered his head, face
and arms with bruises, fractured his spine and caused a pool of blood to
collect between his brain and the tissue lining the inside of his skull.
Donley sought to convince the jury that Bunnell’s boyfriend at the time,
Gilbert Delestre, who is in the Adult Correctional Institutions awaiting
trial in the murder, inflicted the fatal injuries after Bunnell left the
apartment to drive the babysitter home.
The jury of five men and seven women didn’t buy it. In finding Bunnell
guilty of second-degree murder, they concluded that Bunnell intended to
kill T.J., even if the intention was only momentary.
In finding Bunnell guilty of murder conspiracy, they concluded that she
and Delestre acted in concert to beat the toddler to death.
There was testimony to sup****t both conclusions. T.J.’s babysitter,
Kayla Roderick, told the jury that Bunnell flew into a rage when she
returned to the apartment around 2:30 a.m. and discovered that T.J. had
spilled a bowl of yogurt and milk in the living room.
She dragged T.J. out of bed, carried him downstairs, dropped him onto
the floor and swore at him, demanding, “What the [expletive] did you do
to my house?” Roderick said.
She pulled T.J. by the wrist, punched him in the chest and back, and
caused him to fall, Roderick testified, hitting his head multiple times.
After Bunnell was done beating the child, Delestre picked him up and
hurled him across the living room, causing him to land on the floor with
his foot twisted under his stomach, Roderick testified.
Another witness, Delestre’s cousin, Jose A. Santiago, said Bunnell
yelled at him and hung up on the 911 operator when she returned to find
the toddler unresponsive and Santiago calling 911 for help.
Santiago testified Bunnell tried to snatch the child from him when he
tried to perform CPR.
T.J. was one of four children of Bunnell’s sister, Karen Wright.
Wright and T.J.’s grandmother, Mary Bunnell, were in court every day of
the 10-day trial.
They wept quietly when the jury returned the verdict.
Donley said Katherine Bunnell’s family is sup****tive, “including
T.J.’s
mom — her sister — who doesn’t believe Katherine killed T.J. but
acted
in a way that she should be ashamed of.”
Katherine Bunnell testified that she took T.J. in, along with his older
brothers, David and Mickey, and 2-year-old sister, Michaela, after Karen
Wright went to prison in Illinois for possession of marijuana.
She said she didn’t notify the Department of Children, Youth and
Families of the arrangement until Michaela spent the weekend with her
father, David Wright, and Wright wouldn’t return the child to Bunnell,
as her sister Karen wished.
At the time, her own daughters by Delestre, Daziya and Destiny, were 1
and 3 years old, respectively, Bunnell testified.
Following T.J.’s slaying, the couple had their parental rights
terminated by Family Court.
The girls have been adopted, along with T.J.’s siblings, in placements
that have been reviewed and deemed safe by the DCYF, a DCYF official
said yesterday.
The DCYF received a storm of criticism after T.J.’s slaying. The agency
was accused by the Office of the Child Advocate of ignoring warning
signs that Bunnell and Delestre were unfit to be foster parents,
because, among other things, the couple had a history of drug use and
Delestre was arrested for possession of marijuana in Arkansas in 2003.
The agency was also criticized for letting T.J. and his brothers remain
with the Bunnell and Delestre before they were formally licensed as
foster parents.
In 2006, on the second anniversary of T.J.’s death, the Office of Child
Advocate released a re****t saying that, while the DCYF had made some
progress implementing the recommendations of a review panel following
the murder, it had failed to reduce the caseloads of overburdened
caseworkers to recommended levels, and had missed target dates for new
training programs and performance evaluations.
In an interview yesterday, Deputy DCYF Director Jorge E. Garcia said
that, “I believe all of those recommendations have been implemented.”
Caseload numbers have come down considerably, according to Garcia. When
T.J. was killed, the average DCYF caseload was 18, Garcia said. It is
now down to an average 16 cases per caseworker for the entire state, he
said.
The attorney general was asked following the verdict whether the DCYF
shared blame for the murder.
“A DCYF representative wasn’t in the house that night,” Lynch
answered.
“That young boy was in the care and custody of one person” —
Katherine
Bunnell.
jcastell@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch..
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and ***ual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLI****NG CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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