A 12-year-old boy in West Palm Beach, Florida was arrested for smothering a four-month-old baby boy to death with a pillow.
According to WPTV, the boy – whose name has not been released – was arrested Wednesday, July 27 after he confessed to killing the child because he wouldn’t stop crying.
On December 2, 2015, paramedics responded to a call in the “800 block of 44th Street, west of Greenwood Avenue in the city’s north end” about an unresponsive baby.
The baby was immediately rushed to St. Mary’s Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
A week after the baby’s death, a pre-teen boy handed a note to an officer at his school, confessing to killing his nephew.
West Palm Beach police officials later uncovered that the mother – whose name has not been released – of the four-month-baby left him in the care of the preteen.
When she returned to the home just shortly before 7 p.m., the mother noticed the baby sleeping on his stomach with blue lips.
The mother performed CPR, but her quick-thinking was to no avail.
The boy confessed to investigators that when he was unable to get the baby to stop crying, he placed a pillow over his face, smothering the baby to death.
U.S. Marshalls arrested the boy at his home on manslaughter charges.
During a hearing on the afternoon of Thursday, July 28, 2016 a judge ordered the boy to be released from the Juvenile Assessment Center.
Judge orders the 12 year old to be released to home detention until August 18. Also, no unsupervised contact with anyone under 10 @WPTV
— Jason Hackett (@JHackettNews) July 28, 2016
The judge stated that:
“… Not only will he be confined to his home, but he will also have no unsupervised contact with any child 10 years old and younger.”
In 21 days, the state will determine whether or not the boy will be charged as an adult.
A legal expert, Michelle Suskauer, stated that:
“He’s 12 years old, he’s very young, but young people have been charged before in the adult system with violent crimes.”
“So it’s something that is completely in the discretion of the State Attorney’s office.”
A clinical director at the Center for Child Counseling, Clarissa DeWitt, added that:
“You’d think at 12 years old, cognitively, they would have the ability to understand right from wrong, but it really would depend on what’s in the child’s past.”
Featured Image via Vera Kratochvil at PublicDomainPictures.net, Public Domain license
