A Wisconsin teen accused in the brutal murder and sexual assault of 10-year-old Lily Peters after luring the girl to a remote trail will be tried as an adult, an appeals court ruled.
Last year, attorneys for the now-16-year-old suspect, identified in court documents only as C.T.P.-B, requested his trial be moved to juvenile court, citing a lack of mental health resources for the teen – recently diagnosed with autism and anxiety disorder – in the adult criminal justice system, according to WEAU-TV.
On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled his case will play out in adult court, siding with a Chippewa County court judge's earlier decision that such a move would downplay the seriousness of the offenses, court documents read, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The suspect allegedly "convinced the victim to leave a residence and go down a trail with him, with the specific, pre-existing intention to rape and kill her," the ruling read, according to KARE-TV.
The court stated the suspects actions "were violent and egregious in nature" and that he "carried out his plan to rape and murder a 10-year-old young girl, viciously and with brutality."
The suspect's alleged crimes were described as "clearly premeditated."
In April 2022, C.T.P.-B, then 14, allegedly lured Lily to the woods in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, after she left her aunt's residence.
Her father reported her missing that night after she failed to come home.
Lily's body, undressed from the waist down, was found in the woods the next day.
According to the police report, the suspect allegedly punched Lily in the stomach, beat her with a stick, strangled her to death and raped her.
He has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide and sexual assault.
He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
