BUNNELL

PROVIDENCE –– The autopsy that determined that 3-year-old Thomas “T.J.” Wright was beaten to death showed he had slap marks on his cheeks; bruises on his face, head and arms; a broken upper left leg; compression fractures of his spine; and a pool of blood between his brain and the membrane lining his skull.

The toddler’s injuries were so numerous and severe, it would be impossible to say which of the blows inflicted on him was fatal, an assistant medical examiner said.

“I don’t think that could be determined,” Dr. Peter Andrew Gillespie testified. “In our opinion, it was the totality of his injuries that led to his death.”

The autopsy results were presented yesterday, the fourth day of Katherine Bunnell’s trial for T.J.’s murder.

Bunnell, who was his aunt and foster mother, kept her face down and her head in her arms throughout yesterday’s testimony, which was illustrated with photographs taken during the autopsy.

The autopsy was conducted by Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Dorota Latuszynski after T.J. — a handsome boy with big dark eyelashes –– was taken off life support at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Gillespie testified that T.J.’s body arrived from Hasbro in a clean diaper and hospital gown.

Two stuffed animals came with the body –– a dolphin and Mickey Mouse.

Bunnell and her boyfriend, Gilbert Delestre, had custody of the toddler because her sister, Karen Wright, was serving a 2½-year prison term in Illinois for possession of marijuana.

Wright and T.J.’s grandmother, Mary Bunnell, burst into tears and left the courtroom when the autopsy photographs were displayed. Two jurors wept quietly.

A witness at Bunnell’s murder trial –– the baby sitter Bunnell hired to watch her daughters as well as T.J., and his brothers, David, 10, and Mickey, 6 –– said T.J. was beaten when Bunnell and her boyfriend returned to their Woonsocket apartment from a night out on Oct. 30, 2004, and flew into a rage over the mess the toddler had made on the living room floor.

The baby sitter, Kayla Roderick, now 18, testified that Bunnell and Delestre took turns beating T.J. –– Delestre slapping the toddler and hurling him across the living-room, Bunnell hitting T.J. on the back and chest, slapping him in the face and pouring a container of milk on his head.

Roderick said Bunnell drove her home around 2:30 a.m. Bunnell’s lawyer, Gerard H. Donley, tried yesterday to lay the basis for the defense that, while Bunnell was out, Delestre continued the beating, with T.J. suffering fatal injuries from a fall down the stairs.

Assistant Attorney General Scott Erickson objected. No evidence had been introduced that T.J. had fallen down a flight of stairs, he said.

But in a videotaped statement Delestre gave the police, Delestre said he hit T.J. with the back of his hand, causing him to tumble downstairs.

On cross-examination, Gillespie acknowledged that the injuries to the head, spine and leg that T.J. suffered could have been caused by such a tumble.

“Are those injuries consistent with a scenario in which there was a beating and a fall down the stairs?” Donley asked Gillespie.

“That’s possible,” Gillespie answered.

Could the fall have fractured the femur, or large bone in T.J.’s upper left leg? Donley asked.

“It’s possible, sure,” Gillespie answered.

Bunnell, 24, is being tried before Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia in Superior Court.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday, with the doctor who treated T.J. at Hasbro taking the stand.

Delestre, 27, is scheduled to be tried later.

jcastell@projo.com