Judge Releases Boys Accused of Killing Girl, 11,

Two boys, ages 7 and 8, were ordered released into home confinement Thursday while they await trial on charges that they killed an 11-year-old girl for her shiny blue bicycle.

The two boys will be confined to their homes for 24 hours a day, and the court will use an electronic monitoring system to ensure that its instructions are followed, Cook County Juvenile Court Judge Gerald Winiecki said.

He said he had no alternative under Illinois law but to release the boys, since they are too young to be sent to a state youth prison. Any youth convicted in Juvenile Court can only be held until age 21.

The boys are named in juvenile delinquency petitions alleging that they killed Ryan Harris, who was struck in the head, sexually molested and suffocated. Her panties were stuck in her mouth; grass and leaves were stuffed into her nostrils.

Police say the 7-year-old hit Ryan in the head with a rock, knocking her off her bike. The boys allegedly hid the bike in a weeded lot, but it was gone when they returned to look for it. Ryan’s body was found July 28.

After Ryan was killed, the 7-year-old allegedly told police that he went to his grandmother’s house to play with a new puppy while the 8-year-old went home to watch cartoons.

Neighbors and shopkeepers describe the 7-year-old as an aggressive child who is good with his hands, loves candy and bikes, and earned spare change doing yard work or helping out in the local grocery.

The 8-year-old, who recently received a bike as a birthday present, is an honor student. He is so shy that he rarely left his yard, neighbors said.

This is just the latest sensational case in Chicago in which children have been charged with killing other children.

Four years ago, Robert “Yummy” Sandifer, 11, was killed in a chain of events that began when he fatally shot a 14-year-old girl in a botched plan to shoot a rival gang member. He, in turn, was shot to death in a killing that prosecutors said was ordered by gang leaders to silence him.