CLEVELAND
(AP) -- An 11-year-old girl from a Cleveland suburb has been charged
with murder in the beating of a 2-month-old who was staying overnight
with the girl and her mother to give the baby's mom a break.
Wickliffe
police Chief Randy Ice said at a news conference Monday that the
11-year-old, her mother and the baby girl, Zuri Whitehead of Cleveland,
were on a couch downstairs when the mother fell asleep at about 3 a.m.
Friday. The mother was awakened less than an hour later by her daughter,
who was holding the badly injured infant. Ice said the 11-year-old took
the infant upstairs. When she returned downstairs, the infant was
bleeding and her head was badly swollen, he said.
The
11-year-old's mother immediately called 911, Ice said. Zuri was flown
to a children's trauma center in Cleveland, where she died.
The
mother of the 11-year-old and Zuri's mother, Trina Whitehead, had known
each other for five or six years but weren't related, Ice said. Trina
Whitehead has three other children and had the girl's mother keep Zuri
overnight to give her a break.
The Associated Press is not naming the 11-tear-old or her mother because of the girl's age.
Neither
Ice nor a Lake County juvenile court official could recall a murder
suspect being that young. Court administrator Chris Simon said 13 is the
youngest age that children are typically detained at the county's
juvenile detention center, where the girl is being held. Juvenile Judge
Karen Lawson entered a not guilty plea for the girl at a detention
hearing Monday and ordered that she undergo a competency hearing.
FBI
crime statistics show there were 20 children age 12 and under in the
U.S. who were accused of murder during 2012, the most recent year for
which statistics were available.
The girl
cannot be tried as an adult. A child must be at least 14 years old in
Ohio to be turned over to adult court. An 11-year-old can, however, be
sentenced to a state Department of Youth Services facility until age 21.
The
middle school the girl attends had called police about the girl on one
occasion for a non-violent incident, Ice said. The girl and her mother
have been questioned.
The girl did not show any remorse, Ice said. "I'm not sure she appreciated the gravity of what she did," he said.
The girl's public defender declined to comment on Monday.
Ice is considering counseling for the officers who responded to the scene.
"We're having a hard time getting (our) heads around this," he said. "You don't see stuff like this."
