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Michael McCarthy looks at his attorney Jonathan Shapiro after he was found guilty of second-degree murder Monday at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.
Michael McCarthy looks at his attorney Jonathan Shapiro after he was found guilty of second-degree murder Monday at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

Man convicted in 2-year-old's slaying

BOSTON -- A man was convicted Monday of murder in the death of a 2-year-old girl who became known as Baby Doe after her remains washed up on the shore of a Boston Harbor island.

Michael McCarthy was charged in the 2015 killing of Bella Bond, his girlfriend's daughter. A computer-generated image of the girl was shared by millions of people on social media.

Her body was found inside a trash bag on Deer Island in Winthrop in June 2015 by a woman walking a dog.

The jury, which had been deliberating since June 20, found McCarthy guilty of second-degree murder. Under a second-degree murder conviction, a person is eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison.

McCarthy, 37, will be sentenced Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Bella's mother, Rachelle Bond, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact for helping McCarthy dispose of the girl's body. Under a plea deal with prosecutors, Bond is expected to be released after McCarthy's trial, serving less than two years in jail. Both were heroin addicts with whom the girl lived a hard life that came to an end with punches from McCarthy.

Pharmacy boss sentenced for outbreak

BOSTON -- The co-owner of a pharmacy deemed responsible for the deaths of 76 people in a national meningitis outbreak tearfully apologized to the victims on Monday and was sentenced to nine years in prison, far less than the victims had wanted.

"I'm sorry for your extraordinary losses," Barry Cadden said, wiping his eyes.

Cadden was acquitted of second-degree murder charges under federal racketeering law but was convicted on conspiracy and fraud charges.

A dozen victims who were sickened or lost loved ones asked the judge to give Cadden the harshest penalty allowed under the law for the deadly 2012 nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak. Prosecutors said 76 people died and hundreds of people were sickened in 20 states.

The outbreak was traced to contaminated injections of medical steroids made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

Mother of slain motorist settles case

MINNEAPOLIS -- The mother of Philando Castile, a black motorist killed by a Minnesota police officer last July, has reached a nearly $3 million settlement with the city that employed the officer, avoiding a federal wrongful-death lawsuit that attorneys said could have taken years to resolve.

The settlement to be paid to Valerie Castile, who is the family's trustee, was announced Monday and comes less than two weeks after officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter and other charges connected to her son's death.

Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, was shot five times by Yanez during a traffic stop after Castile informed the officer he was armed. Castile had a permit for his gun. The shooting gained widespread attention after Castile's girlfriend, who was in the car with her then-4-year-old daughter, live-streamed its gruesome aftermath on Facebook.

The $2.995 million settlement plan requires approval by a state court, which could take several weeks.

U.S. dismisses Georgia's hacking cry

ATLANTA -- The Department of Homeland Security has dismissed allegations that the federal government tried to hack Georgia's election systems.

In December, Secretary of State Brian Kemp accused the department of an attempted hack, saying that a computer traced back to the federal agency tried unsuccessfully to penetrate his office's firewall.

However, according to a letter released Monday by the agency's inspector general, computer records show that a contractor at a training center headquartered in Georgia was verifying weapons certification for security guards. The letter says that was a "normal and appropriate" use of a public website.

A Section on 06/27/2017

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