Webster DA: 11-year-old is youngest ever prosecuted in parish

By Web staff

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    MINDEN, Louisiana (KTBS) — A 11-year-old boy accused of killing his mother and grandfather in Minden Sunday is the youngest defendant Webster District Attorney Schuyler Marvin’s office has ever prosecuted.

Through an arrangement reached years ago, prosecution of the child will go through Minden City Court, where Assistant District Attorney Jimbo Yocum will handle the case. Yocum also serves as the city of Minden’s attorney.

Marvin said the confession from the child should cause the case to move through court fairly quickly. But no court dates have been set.

Killed in the shootings were Joe Cornelius, 82, and his daughter, Keisha Miles, 31.

Minden police initially said the shooter was 10 years old. However, at a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Police Chief Jared McIver said they’ve since learned the child is 11.

Cornelius and Miles were shot multiple times with two different weapons that were found hidden on the property. Calibers of both match empty shell casings found on the scene, McIver said.

The child was on the scene when officers arrived. “He gave us a story at first that just didn’t add up,” McIver said.

The interview continued and the child confessed, McIver said.

Even as serious as the case is, the child cannot be prosecuted as an adult, Marvin said.

“You can’t bump it up to adult court until age 14,” Marvin said.

Age 10 is the cutoff for criminal culpability, he said, meaning anyone younger than that can’t be held criminally responsible for a crime.

If convicted, the child would only spend either up to age 18 or 21 in a juvenile facility.

He’s charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is held in Ware Youth Center in Coushatta on bonds totaling $500,000.

Marvin expects autopsy results for Cornelius and Miles to be in hand by week’s end. With that and the confession, “we’ll pretty much have everything in line,” Marvin said.

The child has only been living with Cornelius for about a month. He and Miles moved from Houston.

As far as a motive, McIver said that’s something that’s still being determined.

“A lot of questions have arisen about what is the ‘why’ behind it. We do not know that yet. We are still piecing the puzzle pieces together. There is a lot of pieces to put together, a lot of evidence. We still got a little ways to go,” McIver said.

Still, McIver added, “Who knows why someone would do something this malicious at that age.”

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