Jury selection is beginning in the murder trial of a Groton man accused of getting angry at his fiancee's 2-year-old niece and drowning her in 2007.
Craig Betancourt, 36, was babysitting Treau Bemis at a Groton home while his fiancee was at work and became upset after the girl threw up and cried while he bathed her in a Jacuzzi-style tub, police said.
Betancourt told officers he held her face under the jets while she struggled and cried, then left her there and watched football, police said.
Betancourt’s trial is being held in New London Superior Court, where jury selection is to begin Tuesday.
He has pleaded not guilty to capital felony and murder. If convicted, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.
