(LEFT) A Glynn County Sheriff's Deputy directs 17 year-old De Marquise Elkins out of the courtroom in the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. (RIGHT) A Glynn County Sheriff's Deputy directs 15 year-old Dominique Lang out of the courtroom in the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga.
A Georgia teenager has been indicted for killing a 13-month-old baby after shooting him in the face while trying to rob the child's mother.
The indictment by a Glynn County grand jury charges 17-year-old De'Marquise Elkins on 11 counts, including malice murder, in the slaying last Thursday of young Antonio Santiago a few blocks from his home in coastal Brunswick.
The same indictment, returned Wednesday, charged the suspect with shooting another person in an unrelated robbery attempt earlier this month.
We're comfortable now, six days into it, to say the location of the incident and the victim were random. I don't have any information that shows otherwise.
Another suspect, 15-year-old Dominique Lang, was indicted on seven counts including felony murder. But the indictment specifies that authorities believe it was Elkins who shot the child and wounded his mother with a .22-caliber revolver as the boys tried to steal money from her.
District Attorney Jackie Johnson of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit said in a statement Thursday she would not seek the death penalty against either suspect because Georgia law doesn't allow capital punishment for defendants charged with crimes committed before they were 18. Both teens are charged as adults.
The few details contained in the indictment seem to back up the story the slain baby's mother, Sherry West, has repeated to numerous reporters: She was pushing her baby in a stroller as she walked home from the post office when two youths approached asking for money. West says when she refused, the older teen drew a gun and shot her in the leg before shooting her son in the head.
Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering told reporters Wednesday before the indictment was returned that investigators believe the crime was random — something police hadn't said previously.
"We're comfortable now, six days into it, to say the location of the incident and the victim were random," Doering said. "I don't have any information that shows otherwise."
The grand jury also indicted three of Elkins' relatives on charges that they tried to help him after the shootings.
The suspect's mother, Karimah Elkins, and older sister, Sabrina Elkins, were charged with evidence tampering. The indictment says they threw the revolver that police suspect was used in the shooting into a saltwater pond where investigators recovered it Tuesday. Doering said the gun is being tested to see if it can be linked to the child's slaying.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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