Authorities announced their intention to prosecute the eight-year-old boy, who has not been named, almost a month after the death of one-year-old Kelci Lewis.
The young boy is the youngest person to be charged with murder in Jefferson County. The little girl’s mother, 26-year-old Katerra Lewis, has been charged with manslaughter in the death of the one-year-old after she left her in the care of a group of children, the oldest of them, eight-years-old while she went out to a nightclub with a friend.
“This is one of the most heartbreaking investigations that I have seen in over 30 years of my law enforcement career,” Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper told AL.com.
The mother and a friend left the home where they were staying late on October 11, to go to a nightclub. The one-year-old was found unresponsive in her crib the next morning at 10:45 a.m. Police were called to the house on Second Avenue South, and Kelci Lewis was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead at 11:07 a.m.
Family members told police that Lewis and her daughter, her only child, were staying with a friend at the house while she waited on section eight housing of her own. Kelci was left alone that night with five other children, ages 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8. The friend she went out with is the one who she was staying with.
It is believed that while the mother and friend were at the club, the eight-year-old viciously attacked the one-year-old because she would not stop crying,” police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said at a press conference on Tuesday. “The 1-year-old suffered from severe head trauma as well as major internal organ damage which ultimately led to her death.”
Katerra Lewis turned herself into police on Monday afternoon where she was charged with manslaughter. Less than two hours later, she was released after posting $15,000 bond, according to police records. All the children in the home have been removed and have not been returned. The eight-year-old is is in the custody of the Department of Human Resources.
