Jury picked in murder trial

PROVIDENCE—Lawyers have picked a jury in the murder trial of a man accused of fatally beating a 3-year-old boy, and they are preparing to give opening statements.

Gilbert Delestre is charged in the October 2004 death of Thomas “T.J.“ Wright.

Jury selection concluded Tuesday, and lawyers were set to deliver opening statements Wednesday in Providence Superior Court.

Prosecutors say Delestre and his girlfriend, the child’s aunt, fatally beat the boy because they were angry with him for making a mess in their Woonsocket apartment.

Delestre’s girlfriend, Katherine Bunnell, was convicted in May of second-degree murder and sentenced to life with parole.

Wright and his siblings were living with the couple while their mother, Bunnell’s sister, was in prison out of state.