12-Year Old Boy Charged for Beating Toddler to Death

A 12-year-old boy from Lauderhill, Florida has been charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of a toddler who was left in his care, authorities reported Sunday.

Harwelt Beaubum had been left alone with the 17-month old girl and the boy’s 10-year old brother on Friday. According to the police report, the boy became angry with the Shaloh Joseph because she would not be quiet while he was trying to watch television. The boy then allegedly picked up a baseball bat and hit her several times in the head.

“He became enraged ... because she made noise while he was trying to watch television,” said Lauderhill police spokesperson Lt. Mike Cochran, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

A phone to 911 was made on Friday about 1:15 p.m. saying the toddler had difficulty breathing. Shaloh was taken to Plantation General Hospital where her death was confirmed. She had died of severe head injuries, according to the doctors dealing with her case.

Cochran reported that the boy confessed that he had become angry when the little one began to cry.

Beaubum was arraigned in juvenile court Sunday and remained in custody, but it was not clear, if he had an attorney or if anyone else would be charged in the girl’s death.

Though the relationship between the boy and the two children was not specified, authorities said that the three were related. The boy was identified as the child of Guerla Joseph.

This case triggers at another similar one occurred in Florida in 1999 when 12-year-old Lionel Tate was jailed for beating to death a six-year-old girl. At the time, Tate was the youngest person in modern U.S. history to receive a life prison sentence. He was convicted as an adult of first-degree murder, but the conviction was thrown out in 2004 and Tate pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.