An 11-year-old girl helping her mother baby-sit has been charged with murdering a 2-year-old, who suffered blunt-force trauma to the head, torso and buttocks, Georgia authorities say.
Police in Sandy Springs, just north of Atlanta, are holding the girl, whose name was not released, in juvenile detention after issuing warrants charging her with felony murder and child cruelty.
Ashlea Collier, the toddler’s mother, said she left her daughter with a co-worker and the co-worker’s daughter. When she came to get Zyda White after getting off work, the child was lying in bed, her eyes wide open and her skin turning blue, WSBTV in Atlanta reported.
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‘She needs to do life,’ the weeping mother said of the 11-year-old. Collier said the girl told her that Zyda had fallen out of bed. The girl put Zyda back to bed and gave her apple juice. ‘That was it,’ Collier said the girl told her.
Paramedics transported the toddler to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy determined Zyda died from blunt force trauma to her head and suffered heavy trauma to her torso and buttocks.
Legal experts question whether the 11-year-old could be tried as an adult.
