Boy charged with toddler's murder
A nine-year-old boy has been charged with first-degree murder after a toddler was beaten to death in a US suburb.
Associate Judge Walter Brandon has ordered the Illinois Department of Human Services to take custody of the child, who was charged as a juvenile iver the August 22 death of the 14-month-old boy in Cahokia, St Louis.
Defence lawyer Bill Walker said the boy’s mother and grandmother both died years ago and that the other adults in his life were detained after being charged with child endangerment.
The Belleville News Democrat reported that prosecutors alleged those three adults left the toddler unsupervised with four other children.
The judge ordered that the child should undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Mr Walker argued that the issue was the boy’s age, not his mental state.
