Boy, 14, pleads not guilty to attacking 7-year-old neighbor

Prosecutors will seek to have a 14-year-old Puyallup boy tried as an adult for a brutal attack that left his 7-year-old neighbor in intensive care.

The boy appeared before a judge at the Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Center in Tacoma Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to kidnapping in the first degree, rape in the first degree, rape of a child in the first degree, and attempted murder in the first degree.

On July 10, according to court documents, the boy lured the victim into the woods near an apartment complex where their families lived. Once there, prosecutors said the girl was beaten, sexually assaulted and nearly choked to death.

It was several hours before the girl was reported missing and community members, including the suspect, helped police search for her.

“When police located the 7-year-old, she was semiconscious, cold, shivering, partially undressed and clearly beat up,” said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.

Lindquist said the victim identified her attacker and the boy later confessed to detectives.

“He admitted beating her and strangling her and even said he ‘had to get rid of her so she wouldn’t tell anyone,'” Lindquist told KIRO Radio Tuesday. “That sounds a lot like attempted murder and it also sounds like someone covering up a sexual assault.”

Lindquist said his office would seek to have the boy tried as an adult “in the interest of public safety.” If convicted as a juvenile, the boy would be released when he turned 21 years old. If tried and convicted as an adult, he could face more than 30 years behind bars.

Desiree Jiles, 14, told reporters outside the courtroom Tuesday that she came to support the suspect, who she said is her best friend.

“I’m trying to imagine, like, that my best friend would do that and it’s hard,” she said.

Her mother, Amanda Coleman, said the boy showed no signs of being violent.

“He was so nice and sweet to everybody,” she said. “I mean, he would help anybody in the complex.”

Pierce County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Benton said Tuesday that the suspect has three prior convictions for assault in juvenile court. The convictions stem from a single incident where he attacked two deputies and tried to choke his younger brother, according to the prosecutor’s office.

A spokesperson for Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma said Tuesday that the victim has been moved out of the pediatric intensive care unit and was upgraded from serious to satisfactory condition.