SCRANTON -- It seems so bizarre to mention "10-year-old boy" and "homicide charges" in the same sentence.
What's even more unfortunate is that our area has seen other youngsters charged with violent crimes.
Each time, the cases prove to be difficult to deal with.
Before attorney Ernest Preate did criminal defense, he was attorney general for Pennsylvania and before that, the district attorney in Lackawanna County.
All that experience and he was still shocked to hear a 10-year-old boy from Wayne County was charged with murder.
"What shocks me is that we are getting people who are younger and younger and younger committing more and more heinous and brutal crimes," Preate said.
Earlier this year, another juvenile was charged with murder. 16-year-old Aazis Richardson of Scranton is accused of killing a cab driver in cold blood.
Preate thought back three decades to another murder case involving a juvenile. 15-year-old Joseph Aulisio of Old Forge was charged with killing two children in 1981.
Preate calls those killings senseless.
As he read through paperwork on the Wayne County case, he said this case doesn't seem as calculated.
"He [Kurilla] tells the state troopers, 'I didn't mean to kill her. I only meant to hurt her.' Well that's not first degree murder," Preate said.
Still, prosecutors have the challenge of getting into the head of a 10-year-old to see what his intent was.
"It certainly is very difficult when you see a very young person walk into court and you realize that now they are at a cross roads," said Lackawanna County Deputy D.A. Frank Castellano.
Castellano showed us the state law that requires Wayne County prosecutors to charge 10-year-old Tristin Kurilla as an adult.
In the eyes of the law because of the crime his age doesn't matter, but it doesn't make it any easier for those who uphold the law.
"If this individual is ultimately convicted and held responsible for these crimes, you're talking about a potential lifetime of incarceration for these crimes, and quite honestly a lifetime lost," Castellano added.