BELLEVILLE, Ill. (CN) - Illinois state prosecutors charged a 9-year-old boy with first-degree murder.
St. Clair County prosecutors accuse the boy of beating to death 14-month-old Taquan Willis, while the boy was staying in Cahokia with family members. Cahokia is 5 miles east of St. Louis.
State law prohibits the release of details because the charges involve a minor.
St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the child could not, by law, be tried as an adult. The case is pending in juvenile court.
The boy is the youngest in the region to be charged with murder, but not the youngest in the nation, according to the Post-Dispatch.
In 2008, an 8-year-old boy in Arizona was charged in the shooting deaths of two men, including his father.
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