Girl, 12, Sentenced In Death Of Toddler

A 12-year-old girl should spend up to 20 years in state custody for the beating death of a toddler in her grandparents’ illegal day care center, a jury decided Friday.

The girl was 11 when she beat 2-1/2-year-old Jayla Belton to death on May 24, striking her on the head and body more than a dozen times and rupturing her liver with the fatal blow.

She was convicted Wednesday of criminally negligent homicide and intentional injury to a child by the six-man, six-women jury, which found her innocent of the more serious charges of murder and manslaughter.