Boy, 9, Charged in Brother’s Fatal Stabbing

A 9-year-old Bellflower boy suspected of stabbing his 11-year-old brother to death with a steak knife was charged with second-degree murder Tuesday, possibly the youngest person in Los Angeles County history to face such a charge.

Sheriff’s detectives initially believed that the older brother accidentally fell on the knife as the two roughhoused Saturday. But after interviewing the boy, they took him into custody.

“After reviewing all the reports, I was convinced that there is sufficient evidence to indicate that this wasn’t an accident, but an intentional act,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Doyle, who is prosecuting the case.

Doyle said neither he nor his supervisor, who has been handling juvenile cases for 25 years, has ever heard of a suspect this young prosecuted for murder in the county.

The boy’s cousin, a 30-year-old man named Bobby, who declined to give his last name, said he is convinced the killing was an accident.

“We’ve got to deal with a double blow: burying one and defending one,” he said. “It’s really taken a toll on my family. . . . But he wouldn’t do it intentionally. They were too close for that. He would never hurt his brother.”

A few neighbors who knew the dead boy and his brother agreed.

“They were good kids,” said Mary Stewart, whose 11-year-old son was friends with the brothers. “They were very well-disciplined. They sometimes got in disputes with each other, but they never beat each other.”

In an adjacent apartment complex, where the brothers would come to wrestle and play football with friends, Wyshawn Boyd said the 9-year-old “was too kindhearted to do anything like that. When there were kids out here fighting, they were the only two who I didn’t have to say something to.”

Across the country, murder by children is rare. In 1996, the most recent year for which FBI statistics are available, three murders were committed in the United States by children ages 5 to 8.

Among slightly older children, there have been a number of high-profile cases during the past year. In 1997, a 13-year-old Los Angeles boy shot and killed two people, including 82-year-old Viola McClain of Watts.

Last March in Chicago, a 9-year-old boy and his 14-year-old brother were charged with beating their 5-year-old foster brother to death in a case of sibling rivalry.

In August, an 11-year-old Martinez, Calif., boy who shot his 13-year-old neighbor in a revenge killing was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Also last month, an 11-year-old and a 13-year old were convicted of gunning down four classmates and a teacher at a Jonesboro, Ark., school in March.

This spate of high-profile, violent crimes has prompted 41 states in the past six years to pass new juvenile crime laws so young criminal can be charged as adults. In California, the law was changed to allow minors to be tried as adults at age 14, rather than 16.

The maximum penalty for those under 14 who are convicted of murder is a sentence at the California Young Authority until they are 25.

Last Saturday, the mother of the 9-year-old suspect had to work, so she left her two sons and her second-grade daughter with a friend who was living with her, authorities said. The friend, however, left the house, taking the girl and leaving the brothers and her own son. She returned about an hour later and discovered the body of the 11-year-old boy, authorities said.

Detectives are continuing the investigation to determine if the woman can be criminally charged, Doyle said.

“The child abuse law encompasses leaving a child in a situation where they could come to harm,” Doyle said. “It hasn’t yet been decided whether to charge the baby sitter with criminal misconduct.”

The 9-year-old suspect, who has not been identified because of his age, is being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. He is scheduled to be arraigned today.

Miles Corwin is a Times staff writer, and Jack Leonard is a Times correspondent.