13-Year-Old Set to Face Adult Murder Trial

June 5 -- A Georgia judge cleared the way today for a 13-year-old boy to be tried as an adult for allegedly beating a baby girl to death at the foster home they shared.

Authorities say the youth, whose name has not been released by authorities, killed 20-month-old Kentoya Robinson when their foster mother left them in her home to make a brief trip to the grocery store.

A 15-year-old boy and Kentoya's 5-year-old sister were also home when the incident occurred on May 19.

Renee Huie, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Resources, said the state Department of Family and Child Services was investigating the foster home, which had been registered with the state since 1988.

Baby Was Due to Leave Foster Care

The infant died of blunt trauma to the head, medical examiners concluded. Their final report on the death is expected later this month, said District Attorney Kristin Childers, who is handling the case.

Kentoya was days away from being transferred to her grandmother's care when she died.

"I cannot get that that boy beat my baby to death," Kentoya's grandmother, Luetricia Carson, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week.

With the Magistrate Court's ruling today to transfer the matter to the Superior Court, "the district attorney's office has discretion over whether the youth is tried as an adult," Childers said. That decision has not yet been made.

Last month, a Florida jury convicted a 14-year-old boy of second-degree murder for fatally shooting his teacher in the head after being suspended for throwing a water balloon. The incident occurred when the shooter, Nathaniel Brazill, was 13 years old.

In March, Lionel Tate, a 14-year-old who said he was imitating professional wrestlers when he killed his 6-year-old playmate Tiffany Eunick, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.