GAINESVILLE -- A judge found a Gainesville teenager, who told police he was mimicking actions on a video game when he hit his 2-year-old cousin with a stick last month, guilty of child abuse Friday.
Circuit Judge Ysleta McDonald handed down the decision against the 14-year-old, who was tried as a juvenile, after listening to testimony from Gainesville police, doctors and relatives and viewing a recording of the teenager's interview with officers.
The teenager will remain in juvenile detention, the judge ordered.
Under Florida law, he could face five years in a juvenile program for the third-degree felony.
McDonald said she was concerned that the teenager had been put in a situation where he was left to care for three younger children while an adult went to work. That, she said, could have led to circumstances where the 2year-old was injured.
In the interview with police, the teenager said he threw his cousin onto the floor and hit the child in the face with a wooden stick from an election sign. He had been playing with the 2-yearold and a 4-year-old, he said, imitating what he had seen on a street-fighting video game called "Def Jam Fight for NY."
But an emergency room doctor and a pediatrician with the area's Child Protection Team testified that the extent of the boy's injuries weren't consistent with a fall, the judge said. He had been hurt on different parts of his body, including his face, abdomen and arm. His eyes were swollen, and he had an abrasion under one eye that was infected. He also had what appeared to be scratches police said came from the teenager's fingernails.
The toddler was hurt while the teenager was baby-sitting him and two other children April 3. Ethel Mae Edwards, 47, the grandmother of both the teenager and 2-year-old, had left the home to go to work.
Police arrested both Edwards and the teenager on April 5 after the child's mother, who had gone out of state on vacation, returned and found he had been injured.
The case against Edwards, who police said knew the extent of the child's injuries but did not get him medical attention, still is pending in adult criminal court.
