9-year-old Ohio boy charged with attempted murder, rape of 5-year-old autistic girl

A 9-year-old boy in Ohio has been accused of attempted murder and rape after a 5-year-old autistic girl was attacked and left in a field for hours. The boy, as well as a 10-year-old girl, have been charged in the case.

Authorities say the victim was found behind Cleveland's Collinwood Athletic Complex hours after she had been attacked, per Cleveland.com. The young girl had required days of hospitalization and was found to have been beaten, urinated on, and sexually assaulted.

The boy made his first court appearance on Thursday in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court with no legal guardian present. The boy had been scheduled to appear in court the week before but did not show up. Judge Kristin Sweeney had threatened a warrant if the boy had not appeared in court on Thursday, per Cleveland19.

During Thursday’s hearing, a prosecutor said, "This case results in a 5-year-old being left naked, beaten, and urinated upon in a field and left for hours. At a very minimum, the state is requesting home detention with an ankle monitor." The 10-year-old suspect appeared in court the week prior, with the judge placing her on home detention and ordering an ankle monitor to be worn.

The November 14 hearing resulted in Sweeney ordering that the boy be placed in the emergency temporary care and custody of the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services. The boy showed up to Thursday’s hearing with two relatives, but no legal guardian.

An emergency custody hearing was held on Friday, with Judge Sweeney granting the agency custody of the boy. At the hearing, Sweeney said, "Yesterday, I placed (the boy) on home detention, and his mother did not come to court to pick him up from the home detention office." She added that his father is deceased and his mother is currently hospitalized and expected to be released in the following week.

Assistant county prosecutor Anthony Beery said the family services agency "continues to explore the family" to determine whether custody of the boy should return to a relative, however, the boy resides in "residential placement" for now, an out-of-home therapeutic placement for minors needing intensive services.

The two children are expected in court in January after court-ordered competency evaluations. The evaluations were ordered after the boy’s attorney, Edward Borkowski, and the girl’s attorney, Caitlyn Idoine, said in court filings that they were concerned that the children may not understand the proceedings against them. The case could not move forward if the children are unable to understand and assist their defense counsel.

Witnesses have said that they saw three children attack the girl. Several juveniles told investigators that a young girl had led the victim to the field behind the athletic complex before hitting her in the face with a rock, strangling her, and undressing her. The juveniles led authorities to the field where they had found the girl naked and lying in a fetal position.

The victim’s mother pleaded in Thursday’s hearing for Sweeney not to let the suspects return to their homes, suggesting that their home environments led to the alleged crimes. "They changed my daughter’s life."