A jailed 17-year-old is scheduled to appear in court this week on murder charges that he suffocated his 5-year-old brother at the family's home near Rochester.
Kaleb W. Smith, of Eyota, was charged in a juvenile petition filed last week with second-degree murder and domestic assault in connection the death of Alex Smith on June 1 at their home in Eyota.
Smith remains in custody ahead of a hearing Wednesday in Olmsted County District Court.
According to the charging document:
Sheriff's deputies were dispatched about 4:40 p.m. for a medical emergency at the home in the 300 block of 2nd Street SW., where the boys' mother said she had left the house briefly while her sons were there together.
Alex was taken by ambulance to a Rochester hospital and declared dead about 1 hours and 20 minutes later.
Kaleb Smith told deputies that he and his siblings had spent the past few days trying to nurse an injured bird back to health.
On June 1, some of the siblings told Kaleb Smith that Alex had killed the bird, sending the teen looking for the boy.
