Judge: Teen should be tried as adult for killing grandmother

WEST BATH, Maine (AP) — A judge has ruled that a Maine teenager accused of killing his grandmother last year will be tried as an adult.

Dominic Sylvester was 16 when 55-year-old Beulah "Marie" Sylvester was found unconscious inside their Bowdoinham home.

He was initially charged as a juvenile. But a judge's ruling last week means Sylvester, now 18, will be tried as an adult on a charge of depraved indifference murder, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life.

Court records indicate he called 911 in February 2018 and told detectives at the hospital that he had hit his grandmother on the head with a stick.

A judge must consider the nature of the crime, the maturity of the defendant, and sentencing alternatives in determining whether to try him as an adult.