Story highlights Two-year-old Bella Bond was found in a trash bag in Boston two years ago

Michael McCarthy, the girl's mother's boyfriend, is accused of killing her

(CNN) The man accused of killing 2-year-old Bella Bond, the cherubic girl whose unidentified remains were found in a trash bag two years ago near Boston, was obsessed with the occult and thought the young girl was a demon, Suffolk County prosecutors said in opening statements on Tuesday.

Michael McCarthy, the then-boyfriend of the girl's mother Rachelle Bond, has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing Bella, either by suffocating her or punching her in the stomach repeatedly. Her body was stored in a refrigerator and then put in a plastic bag and dumped into the water, authorities said.

McCarthy has pleaded not guilty to murder. His defense attorney alleged that Rachelle Bond was the one truly obsessed with demons and that she was "probably" Bella's true killer.

"He had nothing to do with her tragic death. Michael did not even know that Bella was dead until the police who arrested him told him," McCarthy's defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro said. "The prosecution's case rests entirely upon the uncorroborated and unbelievable testimony from Rachelle Bond."

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