A 10-year-old girl appeared in court Monday on a charge of killing an infant in northwestern Wisconsin.
The girl, whom NBC is not naming, was taken into juvenile custody last week after a 6-month-old boy was found at a day care in Wheaton bleeding from the head with what were later determined to be skull fractures, Chippewa County Sheriff Jim Kowalczyk said in a news release.
The boy died after being airlifted to a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, Tuesday. Investigators interviewed the girl twice; she confessed to harming him in the second interview.
She appeared in Chippewa County Circuit Court on Monday, according to NBC affiliate WEAU. Cash bond was set at $50,000.
The girl was in foster care at the home, which also served as a day care, District Attorney Wade Newell told the station. She accidentally dropped the boy and panicked when he started crying.
"She panicked and didn't know what to do and didn't want to get into trouble and then she proceeded to stomp on the 6 month-old's head," Wade said.
While the girl is being tried in adult court, the case may move to juvenile court, WEAU reported.
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Wheaton is about 85 miles (135 kilometers) east of St. Paul.
