Utah teenager charged with aggravated murder in girl’s death

Hours after her body was located, police on Friday arrested the 15-year-old boy and said he had apparently tried to lure an 11-year-old girl from a different home earlier that same night.

The boy has not been named by the Associated Press because he is a juvenile.

Officers have declined to say if she was assaulted, and the 15-year-old boy has not yet been charged. When she told him no, he asked Kailey if she would help him and she left with him, according to the charges.

The older sister told their mother, who started looking for the girl when she didn’t return.

Salt Lake City District Attorney Sim Gill’s office said in a statement on Tuesday that it has asked for the teenager to be prosecuted as an adult, “based upon the severity of the charge”. According to court filings, officers found Vijil “lying in the field with a shirt wrapped around her neck”, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Kailey Vijil, 12, thought she was helping look for the boy’s lost cat before she was strangled to death.

Police and neighbors said the boy had attempted to lure other young girls out of their homes prior to Kailey and in one case succeeded, but the girl’s mother saw what was happening and called her back into the house before she got very far.

The teen is expected to appear in juvenile court on Wednesday afternoon for a pretrial conference, according to Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Patricia Cassell.

The grandmother of the deceased later reportedly gave the boy’s address to the police. Last fall, he was arrested on misdemeanor charges of theft, burglary, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

An aggravated murder charge typically carries the possibility of the death penalty, but the boy won’t face capital punishment due to his age if that is the case.

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the death penalty is unconstitutional for anyone who committed a crime while younger than 18.