Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- The babysitter for Thomas J. Wright on the night he was allegedly beaten to death by his aunt and her boyfriend told jurors this morning she had been awakened that day around 2:30 a.m. as the two returned home to find a mess in the living room.

In the second day of the murder trial against Gilbert Delestre, Kayla Roderick, who was then 15, testified Delestre and his girlfriend, Katherine Bunnell, started screaming over the mess on the living room floor.

Roderick said she told Delestre, then 27, and Bunnell, then 24, that T.J., as they called the 3-year-old boy, had been playing with toothpaste earlier.

Shortly afterward, Roderick said, Delestre went upstairs and she heard what sounded like loud slaps, followed by T.J.'s cries.

Roderick said she then saw Bunnell carry T.J. downstairs, hitting him and demanding to know why the 3-year-old had made the mess.

Yesterday, Delestre's defense lawyer said Delestre hit the boy on Oct. 29, 2004,, causing him to fall down the staircase of the couple's Woonsocket apartment, but he did not intend to kill him.

Prosecutors said Delestre and Bunnell took turns beating T.J., after becoming enraged when they discovered the boy had spilled yogurt and milk on the new living-room rug.

Video: From the opening of Delestre's murder trial yesterday..

-- With teports from Journal staff writer Tatiana Pina

 Tags  Gilbert Delestre Katherine Bunnell Kayla Roderick murder trial Providence T.J. Wright Thomas J. Wright Woonsocket

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