A 12-year-old Tennessee girl has been charged with murder after she accused her 8-year-old cousin of suffocating her while the younger girl slept. A family member said they had gotten into an argument over an iPhone.
A security camera captured the killing in their shared bedroom on July 15 in Humboldt, Tennessee, the county prosecutor said.
The recording shows the older child using bedding to smother her cousin while the younger child slept in the top bunk, Gibson County District Attorney Frederick Agee said in his statement. After the child died, “the juvenile cleaned the victim and repositioned her body,” Agee said.
The victim’s mother, Rayana Smith, told CBS’ WREG-TV in Memphis that the girls had argued over an iPhone after they came from out of town to stay with their grandmother. She identified her daughter as 8-year-old Demeria Hollingsworth.
GoFundMe Campaign
The 12-year-old girl was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence after authorities obtained the video on Wednesday.
“I consider this to be one of the most disturbing acts of violence committed by an adult or juvenile that my office has prosecuted,” Agee wrote in the statement.
He said he would ask a judge to prosecute the girl, who turns 13 later this month, in adult court, which would allow for “a longer sentence, whether through incarceration or supervision with court-ordered conditions.”
Smith told WREG-TV she was hoping for the maximum sentence.
“The last time I saw my baby, she was smiling, giving me kisses, telling me she’d see me when it was time for her to come home. She’s never coming home. She’s never coming home,” Smith told the station.
A GoFundMe fundraiser organized by Smith had raised more than $14,000 as of Monday morning.
“I never imagined something like this could happen and now I find myself trying to fund a funeral,” the GoFundMe explains.
