Boy, 8, charged with murder of 1-year-old girl

An 8-year-old Alabama boy has been charged with murdering an 1-year-old girl who was beaten to death last month while their parents were at a nightclub.

Birmingham police said Tuesday that they obtained a murder warrant against the boy and placed him in state custody. The girl’s mother, Katerra Lewis, 26, was charged with manslaughter and has since posted $15,000 bond.

“It is believed that while the mother and friend were at the club, the 8-year-old viciously attacked the 1-year-old because the 1-year-old would not stop crying,’’ police spokesman Sean Edwards said. “The 1-year-old suffered from severe head trauma as well as major internal organ damage with ultimately led to her death.”

The 8-year-old was the oldest person in the house while the adults were gone and had been tasked with watching 1-year-old Kelci Lewis, as well as four other children, ages 2, 4, 6 and 7, authorities said. The 6-year-old provided information about the beating that was consistent with the girl’s injuries.

Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper called the case “one of the most heartbreaking investigations that I have seen in over 30 years of my law enforcement career.”

“This is by far one of the saddest cases that I have witnessed and been a part of since I became a police officer,” he said. “This type of irresponsibility on behalf of a parent is totally unacceptable.”

Barry Spear, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Human Resources, told AL.com that authorities will not comment on the 8-year-old suspect in accordance with privacy laws.

Local authorities could not recall of a younger defendant ever being charged with murder in the area, and Tobie Smith, a co-director at the Southern Juvenile Detention Center, told The Associated Press that Alabama has no minimum age for prosecution.

There “are going to be very serious questions about whether an 8-year-old has the rational capacity for the proceedings against him,” Mr. Smith said. “They’re gonna take a real look at whether maybe this is more a matter of parental culpability than child culpability.”

An attorney for the girl’s mother questioned the manslaughter charge.

“The manslaughter statute deals with someone’s action, as far as, acting in the heat of passion or acting in a reckless manner, not a person allowing some other person to act in a dangerous manner,” lawyer Emory Anthony told a local Fox News affiliate.