'I Killed The Lady:' Ten-Year-Old Says He Murdered 90-Year-Old With Her Cane

A new court case is gripping the nation of a 10-year-old boy charged with murdering a 90-year-old woman with her own cane. INSIDE EDITION has the details.

Images of little boys charged with murder have shocked the nation.

Freckle-faced Eric Smith was just 13 when he strangled and beat a four-year-old neighbor to death in 1993.  

Derek and Alex King were 12 and 13 when they killed their father in 2001 with a baseball bat as he slept.

Now, a 10-year-old boy is the newest to join this terrible list. Tristen Kurilla is charged with beating to death a 90-year-old woman with her own cane.

Prosecutor Janine Edwards said, “It's not everyday there's a 10-year-old charged with murder.”  

Even Edwards can't believe the age of the accused killer.

She said, "As a mother I felt something from the beginning, which is, this is extremely unique. We have a 10-year-old child who has just committed a murder."

The shocking attack took place in a ramshackled house in Damascus Township, Pennsylvania, about 140 miles north of Philadelphia, when the boy was visiting his grandfather.

According to authorities, 10-year-old Tristen got into an argument with a 90-year-old woman staying in the home.  What happened next is chilling. The boy lost his temper, then allegedly used a cane to choke the woman, before he pummeled her with his fists.  

"I killed that lady," the fifth grader allegedly told cops.

"Were you trying to kill her?" he was asked.

He replied, "No, I was only trying to hurt her."  

The boy's mother turned him in after he told her what he'd done.

HLN's Nancy Grace told INSIDE EDITION, "Right now, the parents of this 10-year-old boy are claiming, according to reports, they don't want him back home. We don't know why. Has he been a behavioral problem? Has he committed crimes before?"

Tristen is now being held without bail at the Wayne County correctional facility and is being isolated from adult prisoners.  

Everyone is struggling to understand: how could a baby-faced child turn into a killer?

Pennsylvania officials say they had no choice but to charge the boy as an adult as all charges of criminal homicide by law must originate in adult court.