A 12-year-old girl is accused of smothering her 8-year-old cousin over an iPhone during a killing that was caught on camera in their grandmother's Tennessee home.
The unidentified girl was charged as a juvenile with first-degree murder following the July 15 "horrendous" slaying in Humboldt, District Attorney General Frederick Agee said in a statement posted online Thursday.
"I consider this to be one of the most disturbing violent acts committed by either an adult or juvenile that my office has prosecuted," he said.
Agee said he watched a security camera video recording that shows the girl allegedly using bedding to suffocate her cousin as she slept in the top bunk of bunk beds they were sharing.
The girl allegedly cleaned the victim and repositioned her body in an attempted cover up, Agee said, noting that he planned to add a charge of tampering with evidence.
Agee also said he'd filed court papers seeking permission to prosecute the girl, who turns 13 this week, as an adult because state law ends court oversight of juveniles once they turn 19.
Conviction as an adult would carry "a lengthier sentence, whether that will be through incarceration or supervision with court-ordered conditions," he said.
The victim's mother identified her as Demeria Hollingsworth and said that she and her older cousin got into an argument over an iPhone while staying with their grandmother for the summer.
"When they told me about that, I should have just gone to get my kid," Rayana Smith of Nashville told TV station WREG. "But they were having fun for the summer and I didn't think she would kill my baby."
Smith said Demeria "liked to read books, go swimming, play outside, ride her bike every day, play with the kids in the neighborhood, play with my friends' kids."
"My baby was sweet," she said. "She did nothing to deserve for her life to be taken."
Smith also said the last time she saw the girl, "she was smiling, giving me kisses, telling me she will see me when it's time for her to come back home."
A GoFundMe online appeal to raise money for Demeria's funeral had generated more than $16,000 in donations as of Tuesday afternoon.
The service is scheduled for Friday.
