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Bunnell gets life imprisonment in murder of nephew

12:08 PM Mon, Oct 06, 2008 |
Mike McKinney    Email

PROVIDENCE -- Katherine Bunnell, who was convicted for her part in the 2004 beating death of her 3-year-old nephew, Thomas "T.J." Wright, was sentenced today to life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole.

Bunnell, 24, was convicted in May of second-degree murder in Providence County Superior Court.

Bunnell will be eligible for parole.

Bunnell today was also sentenced to 10 years to serve consecutively for conspiracy.

Her boyfriend, Gilbert Delestre, is also facing murder charges in the death of Thomas "T.J." Wright. His trial is set to begin next month.

Prosecutors said the two beat T.J. to death in October 2004 after they returned to their Woonsocket apartment to find the child had made a mess on the living room floor.

Wright was the son of Bunnell's sister, Karen Wright. He had been placed in Bunnell's care after Wright was sent to jail in Illinois on drug charges. Bunnell, a Woonsocket High School dropout who had two children of her own, became the foster parent of three of her sister's children by the time she was 20.

Karen Wright told the judge at the sentencing today: "The only thing that doesn't make me hate my sister is that [T.J.] was alive when she left."

Bunnell wore handcuffs as she addressed the court today, reading from a handwritten statement to Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia: "I'm here to take responsibility."

Attorney General Patrick Lynch sent out a statement this afternoon expressing his gratitude to Indeglia's sentence.

But, Lynch said, "today's sentencing merely brings the legal case to a close; it can't bring T.J. Wright back, and he will be mourned forever."

-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson

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Comments

Johanna said:

In this life people that make bad choices need to face their consequences, and that's what happend to this child killer. This is a reminder of how cruel and demented some human beings can be. Please everyone take care of your children and do the righ thing,so you don't have to leave them with people that won't care about them. May that little boy rest in peace.



John Taber said:

Justice has been served, but for TJ there is know justice for the tot and the terrifing last minutes of his life.



Mike said:

Wow... she is there to take responsibility huh? What a sport... Not sure how people like this can live with themselves after doing something like that. If you feel the need to harm a child in anyway you need to kill yourself... God looks kindly on those who take one for the team.



When will there be some kind of punishment for the drones at DCYF that thought it was a brilliant idea to hand over three small children to a 20-year-old high school dropout with two of her own kids and a history of drug activity? Would they have given their OWN children to Bunnell? Doubt it. Like most state workers, all they care about is their own paycheck at the end of the week. What kind of society do we live in? This feels more like Dickensian London.



jaclynne said:

Sure Katherine Bunnell needs to pay for what happened, but what about the State's responsibility in all this? They allowed a very young and inexperienced girl to care for little TJ - his case worker, at the very least, should also be held accountable.



East Providence said:

It saddens me what transpired of a little life taken so harsh. But, the nagging question in my mind is why did the "Department of Children & Families" intrust this young woman who had other minor children as well to care for another. As a single parent myself; raising a child at the age of 21 years of age was not easy. Fortunately, I was able to manage, but it was met with extreme difficulty, frustration, and depression at times for the mere fact I was not mentally mature to take on this responsibility at this age. I am not familiar with DCYF's protocol on granting fostering of children, but I believe it should be mandated that parental classes as well as psychological assessments be done before allowing these temporary placements of young lives into the hands of others.



warwick said:

i think she shoud have gotten life without the chance of parole for what she did to that beautiful little boy. i have 4 grandsons. from age 20 down to 3 yrs. old. i couldn't think of doing anything bad to these wonderful boys; no matter how upset they get you walk away for a while and cool off; don't take it out on them. they are all innocent little ones.




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