Boy, 10, Accused of Murder in 1-Year-Old’s Beating Death

CHICAGO —  A 10-year-old boy was charged with first-degree murder for the beating death of a 1-year-old girl, authorities said Monday.

Lauren O’Neal was found Friday night in the apartment where the boy lived with his mother and five younger siblings. The mother had been baby-sitting Lauren and her two brothers.

Police said the boy told his mother that Lauren was pushed off the couch by one of her brothers and hit a bunk bed.

But police Det. Brian Killacky testified at a court hearing Monday that the 10-year-old repeatedly kicked the infant to stop her from crying.

The mother was not in the apartment at the time, Killacky said.

“His mother was a block away visiting,” Killacky said. “He was left in charge with the older children. He wanted the child to stop crying. The way he approached it resulted in the child’s death.”

The boy was not identified because of his age. He was charged in a juvenile petition with murder, Sgt. Fred Bonke said.

Judge Arthur Rosenblum found probable cause to detain the boy and ordered him held at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center.

Lauren died at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.

The Cook County medical examiner said the cause of death was a lacerated liver, blunt trauma and child abuse.

*

The mother has not been charged, said Tim Touhy, spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney.

There is no chance the boy will be charged as an adult, Touhy said.

If convicted, the child faces a maximum of five years’ probation or five years in a camp or detention center for delinquent children, Touhy said.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 11.