By RUSS OLIVO

PROVIDENCE — Capping an emotionally-charged trial that had spanned three weeks, a Superior Court jury Thursday convicted Gilbert Delestre on charges of second-degree murder and conspiracy in the 2004 beating death of his 3-year-old foster son, Thomas “T.J.” Wright.

The jury, a panel of eight women and four men, deliberated about 10 hours over two days before reaching a verdict about 3 p.m.
But it was a verdict that left virtually everyone feeling shortchanged – from the state prosecutors and relatives of the victim who wanted Delestre convicted of the more serious charge of first-degree murder, to his own lawyer, who argued that the killing was accidental.
“We were hoping for the first-degree,” said State Prosecutor Stacey Veroni. “We are disappointed with the verdict, but we respect the jury's decision.”
Judge Netti Vogel's cavernous courtroom fell silent as the panel filed into the jury box. As the jury forewoman announced the verdict, Delestre, seated between his lawyers at the defense table, remained stonily impassive.
Meanwhile, in the spectator section, Karen Wright, T.J.'s mother, wept openly, dabbing a tissue to her eyes as her mother, Mary Bunnell, consoled her.
Despite an admonition from the judge to maintain decorum, one man held up a sign blaming the state child welfare agency for T.J.'s death. Sheriffs quietly escorted him from the courtroom.
Delestre was remanded to the ACI pending a still-unscheduled sentencing hearing and led away in shackles by the sheriffs after the verdict. As he turned around to face the spectator section where family members had often been present for moral support, none were there.
Woonsocket police Detective Sgt. Todd Brien later ushered Bunnell and Wright past a throng of reporters waiting for them on the steps of Superior Court, at which point they declined to comment, saying they were too distraught to speak.
 “I've gotta go with my daughter, she's very upset right now at the outcome of what happened,” Bunnell said as she waved off reporters.
Yesterday's verdict mirrors precisely the results of the trial that resulted in the conviction of the first person accused in T.J.'s beating death, his aunt and foster mother, Katherine Bunnell, 25 – Delestre's girlfriend. She was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy in May and is now at the ACI, serving the maximum for her crimes - life, plus 10 years for the conspiracy, making her eligible for parole after some 19 years, including credit for time served.
During the trial, prosecutors argued Delestre and Bunnell came home from a night of drinking on Oct. 30, 2004 and took turns brutally beating T.J. after discovering he had made a mess of milk and yogurt on a new carpet in the living room of their Woonsocket apartment. At the time, the couple was caring not only for their own girls, Daziya, 1, and Destiny, 3, but T.J. and two of his older siblings, Mickey, 6, and David, 10, because their mother – Wright, Bunnell's sister – was doing time in Illinois on charges of possessing approximately 100 pounds of marijuana.
Kayla Roderick, a babysitter who witnessed the beating, testified that Delestre and Bunnell were enraged over the mess. She said she saw Bunnell kick, drag, punch and slap T.J., causing him to repeatedly strike his head on the floor, before Delestre picked him up and hurled him across the living room.
Because Bunnell took Roderick home after that, jurors had little evidence other than Delestre's own testimony to decide what happened to T.J. next. Delestre claimed he accidentally knocked the boy down a flight of stairs, an act his defense lawyer, Robert Mann, said  was grounds for manslaughter, an unintentional killing that carries a lesser penalty than any form of murder.
But prosecutors maintained that Delestre was untruthful, citing the testimony of Dr. Reena Isaac,
an expert  in pediatric child abuse who said the child's extensive and grievous injuries were inconsistent
with a mere fall down a flight of stairs. With bruises all over his face and body, he died a day after the beating
at Hasbro Children's Hospital of a swollen and bleeding brain, compounded by a broken left thigh with
massive internal hemorrhaging.
Veroni, head of the criminal division and State Prosecutor Scott Erickson shared the responsibility of presenting the case to jurors, a job in which they were assisted by Brien, the lead detective for the Woonsocket police who has since retired from the force. All expressed disappointment in the verdict, as did Attorney General Patrick Lynch.
In a statement, Lynch praised the jury for rejecting Delestre's testimony, which he called “a cowardly attempt” to convince them that he had committed manslaughter. The jury, he said, “did not buy it,” just as a previous jury did not buy it the case of Katherine Bunnell.
“While I appreciate the jurors service on a very difficult and emotionally charged case, I am deeply disappointed that the verdict returned against this vile and vicious murderer does not adequately address the depth of his involvement or the darkness of his crime,” said Lynch. “Little T.J. Wright's last minutes, before he was declared brain dead, were minutes of horror, terror and torturous pain...”
Echoing the prosecution team, Detective Brien said, “Obviously, there's some disappointment there in the justice we got for T.J. I believe the state presented a strong case for first-degree murder.”
Mann said the case was tragic for everyone involved – not just T.J. and his relatives, but Delestre's  family, too.
“The first reaction is you grieve for T.J. Wright and his family,” said Mann. “And you grieve for Gilbert Delestre and his family. We're grateful it wasn't first-degree and we're disappointed it wasn't manslaughter.”
Earlier in the day, Mann had moved for a mistrial on grounds that Vogel had improperly instructed jurors on the elements of first-degree murder. Vogel rejected the motion, but Mann declined to discuss whether his arguments could become grounds for an appeal, or whether he would appeal at all. Mann said he had not yet discussed his plans with Delestre.
Had Delestre been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have faced a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, the harshest penalty in the state.  As a result of yesterday's verdict, however, his potential jail time is precisely like Bunnell's.
On a simple life term, parole eligibility kicks in after 20 years, said Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general. Conspiracy carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, with parole eligibility coming after a third of that time. Provided a judge agrees, as it did in Bunnell's case, to tack maximum sentences on the two crimes back-to-back, Delestre would face about 19 years in prison before he is eligible for parole, including credit for time served.
“We hope the court will impose the same sentence on this defendant that was imposed on the first defendant,” Healey said. “They're co-conspirators. They're equally responsible for what happened.”
The high-profile murder led to intense criticism of the state Department for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) for its involvement with T.J. prior to his death. Although the agency knew that Delestre and Bunnell had been arrested with large amounts of marijuana in their vehicle, the agency still certified them as foster parents for Wright's children. The state's child advocate issued a  report chastising the agency for missing several opportunities to prevent the homicide.
Since the murder, Wright has lost custody of all three of her surviving children, including a young girl who was not with Bunnell and Delestre on the night of the beating. Wright and other relatives can visit with the children, who are with paternal grandparents in Winchendon, Mass., where T.J. (his full name is Thomas James Wesley Wright) is buried.
Bunnell and Delestre's two girls have been adopted into foster homes and are no longer allowed any contact with their natural kin, however.
John Caruthers, 72, the man ejected from the court for holding up the sign, said outside the courtroom  that DCYF has never been held to account for T.J.'s murder.
“DCYF officials knew this child was in danger and they did absolutely nothing,” said Caruthers. “Why weren't they charged? What ever happened to plain old right and wrong? Of course I know what the attorney general will say. State officials are immune from prosecution.”