MILWAUKEE – A judge has refused to lower the $50,000 bail imposed on a 10-year-old Milwaukee boy accused of intentionally killing his mother because she would not buy him a virtual reality headset.
The boy's attorney argued during his initial court appearance Wednesday that the bail should be lowered from $50,000 to $100 because he has no source of income, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jane Carroll refused to lower the bail amount and also imposed travel restrictions on the boy, should bail be posted.
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The boy initially told police that the Nov. 21 shooting was an accident, according to the criminal complaint. But later he said he intentionally aimed at his 44-year-old mom before shooting her because he was upset that she woke him early and did not buy him something he wanted, according to the complaint.
The boy was charged as an adult last month with alternate counts of first-degree intentional homicide or first-degree reckless homicide.
Wisconsin law requires children as young as 10 to be charged as adults for certain serious crimes, though the boy’s attorneys can seek to move the case to juvenile court. The boy, who family members said has mental health issues, is being held in juvenile detention.
The prosecutor in the case, Paul Dedinsky, asked the judge to require the boy to be released into the custody of a family member should he post bail. The judge did not impose that restriction.
The boy’s attorney, Angela Cunningham, argued that it would be “unheard of” to require a defendant in adult court to stay in the custody of a family member on pretrial release.
Carroll appeared to side with Cunningham on Wednesday, saying that if he is released, he should be placed on GPS monitoring.
The boy mostly kept his head down during the hearing. Carroll ordered that he not be placed in shackles or any other kind of restraints and forbade the media from publishing any personal information about him, including his image and address.