Police said a 13-year-old boy has been charged with premeditated murder in connection with the death of his 12-year-old friend.
Michael Lynn Campbell was arrested and charged as an adult Friday, two months after Gaines Coker was burned to death at a property in Coldwater, Mississippi.
The boys were reportedly playing behind a shed on a property near Lake Arkabutla on Lake Arkabutla Dam when a fire broke out and Coker caught fire around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, June 27, Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance told WREG-TV.
Coker was taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and then transferred to a burn unit in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he died the next day.
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Investigators said Coker came from Tunica to Tate County to visit a friend, the same boy he was playing with when the fire broke out.
However, Sheriff Lance said it was not clear how the fire started, if one of the boys lit it, or if anyone was with him at the time. He confirmed that family members were inside the house when the fire broke out and that the other boy was unharmed in the fire.
“We are in the very early stages of trying to determine what happened,” Lance told WREG-TV at the time. “Any case involving a child varies whether it’s a fire, and especially a death investigation. It’s tough for everyone involved.”
The sheriff confirmed Friday that Campbell has been charged as an adult with premeditated murder after a joint investigation with the Tate County Sheriff’s Office and the state’s fire chief’s office.
The 13-year-old is currently being held in Tate County Jail without a bond.
NEWSWEEK Contact the Tate County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
In a similar troubling case, a 14-year-old Florida teenager was charged with a crime He killed his 13-year-old classmate, Tristin Bailey.
Aiden Fauci is accused Billy was stabbed more than 100 times On Mother’s Day earlier this year.
Bailey was stabbed 114 times with at least 35 wounds to the head and neck, and 49 of the marks confirmed them as defensive wounds to the upper extremities, according to the coroner’s report.
Her body was found dumped in a wooded area in St. John’s, Florida on May 9 after being reported missing earlier that day.
The coroner found the word “Karma” handwritten in blue ink on her left ankle. A smiley face has also been drawn on her right ankle. The report did not say who put the writing on her body, but noted the presence of “palm prints stained with dry blood” on her thighs and legs.
was fuchi Arrested the next day He was charged with second-degree murder. Since then, prosecutors have raised the charge to first-degree murder that was mediated due to evidence of premeditation.