Baby sitter testifies in child murder trial

PROVIDENCE—A baby sitter testified Thursday that a man accused of fatally beating a 3-year-old boy was angry when he returned home to a messy apartment and that he went upstairs to confront the child.

Kayla Roderick, who was caring for Thomas “T.J.“ Wright on the night he was beaten, testified in the murder trial of Gilbert Delestre.

Delestre and then-girlfriend Katherine Bunnell, the child’s aunt, were guardians of the boy and were charged with fatally beating him in October 2004 in Woonsocket.

Roderick said Delestre went upstairs and that she heard what sounded like slaps and a child’s cries.

Delestre’s lawyer told jurors his client struck the child but did not mean to kill him. He asked jurors to acquit Delestre of murder but convict him of manslaughter.

Bunnell was convicted in May of second-degree murder.