HOUSTON (AP) - A capital murder charge has been downgraded
against a boy who was 12 when he was accused of killing a baby.
     
A Harris County grand jury has now charged the juvenile with
felony injury to a child over the March death of the 10-month-old
boy.
     
Defense attorney Ronald Ray on Wednesday told the Houston
Chronicle that the maximum possible penalty, 40 years behind bars,
remains unchanged.
     
Other children at the home told investigators that the
12-year-old threw Deandre Washington to the floor. The suspect's
family alleges that the baby's 7-year-old brother tossed the
infant, who had been crying, down some stairs or over a
second-floor railing.
     
Assistant District Attorney Perry Jo McCollum declined comment.
     
No trial date has been set.
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Information from: Houston Chronicle,
http://www.houstonchronicle.com
     
     
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
     
AP-NY-10-29-09 0729EDT