Defense appeals ruling to keep Wisconsin teen’s homicide case in adult court

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (AP) — The defense is appealing a ruling that that kept in adult court the case of a 15-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of killing a 10-year-old girl after luring her into woods.

Defense attorney Michael Cohen has filed an appeal of the Jan. 22 decision in the case of the boy identified only as C.P.-B., who is accused in the April 24, 2022, slaying of 10-year-old Iliana “Lily” Peters, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reported Friday.

Cohen filed the 13-page appeal in Chippewa County Court, asking the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to review the matter.

C. P.-B., who will turn 16 in March, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree sexual assault. He has been held in the Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Eau Claire on a $1 million cash bond since his arrest.

The teen allegedly persuaded the girl to leave a trail and explore the surrounding woods as she was riding her bike home from her aunt’s house in Chippewa Falls. Searchers found her body the next morning.

The boy told investigators that after they left the trail, he punched her, hit her with a heavy stick and strangled her until she died, then sexually assaulted her body, according to a criminal complaint.

Anyone who is at least 10 years old and is accused of first- or second-degree homicide is considered an adult in Wisconsin’s court system.