GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy who fatally stabbed a younger boy at a playground in western Michigan has been convicted of first-degree murder.
The jury's verdict in Kent County court was returned Friday after a three-day trial and four hours of deliberations.
There was never a dispute that the boy, who was 12 at the time, killed 9-year-old Michael Connor Verkerke last summer at a playground in Kentwood, near Grand Rapids. The jury had to determine whether years of abuse had wrecked his mental health and shielded him from criminal responsibility.
The Associated Press isn't naming the boy because of his age. He will be sentenced as a juvenile, then resentenced as an adult when he turns 21.