PROVIDENCE — Jury deliberations began yesterday in the trial of Katherine Bunnell, the 24-year-old Woonsocket woman accused with her boyfriend of beating a foster child to death.

The jury of five men and seven women deliberated about three hours, but didn’t reach a verdict.

The jurors were sent home shortly after 4 p.m., by Superior Court Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia, who instructed them to return in the morning and, in the meantime, not to discuss the case.

“You’re in the middle of your deliberations, so it’s critical that you not discuss the case with anyone,” Indeglia said.

Bunnell and her boyfriend, Gilbert Delestre, 27, are charged with fatally beating 3-year-old Thomas “T.J.” Wright after the boy, one of five children in the house, made a mess in their living room.

Because each now accuses the other of the murder, Bunnell and Delestre are being tried separately, with Delestre’s trial expected to follow Bunnell’s in Superior Court.

Bunnell took the witness stand on Tuesday and denied that she gave T.J. more than a few light slaps, contradicting the testimony of an eyewitness, the babysitter, Kayla Roderick, who said Bunnell dragged T.J. around the apartment, punched him in the back and chest and struck him hard in the face.

Delestre, called as a defense witness Tuesday, asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Moments later, Gerard H. Donley, Bunnell’s defense lawyer, introduced a police videotape in which Delestre said he struck T.J., accidentally causing him to tumble down a flight of stairs.

In closing arguments yesterday, Donley and Assistant Attorney General Stacey P. Veroni offered sharply different accounts of the tragedy.

Donley told the jury that T.J. was brutally beaten by Delestre, after Bunnell, who had been out with Delestre that night, left the apartment to drive the babysitter home.

He disputed Delestre’s videotaped statement that the injuries T.J. suffered were accidental, reminding jurors that a prosecution witness, Dr. Reena Isaac, testified that suspects in child abuse cases often claim that the injuries resulted from a fall down the stairs.

“Little T.J. suffered multiple severe blunt trauma –– including a broken leg –– which caused massive brain damage,” Donley told the jury.

“The question I would pose to you is not what happened, but who did it?” Donley said.

“What happened was [Bunnell] disciplined T.J., took home the babysitter, and Gilbert Delestre was left home with this child and beat this child to death.”

Veroni countered that Bunnell set the stage for the brutal beating when she and Delestre arrived home around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 30, 2004, and she flew into a rage about some milk and yogurt T.J. had spilled on the floor of the living room.

“ ‘What the [expletive] happened to my house?’ ” Veroni said, repeating what Roderick said Bunnell yelled, after Delestre pointed out the mess on the carpet.

“ ‘What the [expletive] did you do to my house?’ ” Veroni said Bunnell screamed, after dragging T.J. out of bed.

“ ‘Are you stupid? Why did you do this to me?’ ” Veroni said Bunnell demanded of the toddler.

Bunnell not only yelled at the boy, punched him in the back and chest, and slapped him in the face, she also poured a container of milk on his head, Veroni said.

When T.J. stopped breathing and had to be rushed to the hospital, according to Veroni, Bunnell and Delestre conspired to blame the babysitter, telling T.J.’s brothers, David, 10, and Mickey, 6, “ ‘Tell the police what the [expletive] babysitter did.’ ”

By setting in motion the chain of events that led to T.J.’s death, Bunnell was guilty of murder and murder conspiracy, Veroni said, even if, as the defense argued, Delestre delivered the fatal blows.

jcastell@projo.com