Teen receives life sentence after pleading guilty to murdering 10-year-old cousin
A teenager has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty on Wednesday to the 2022 murder of his 10-year-old cousin in Wisconsin.
According to the criminal complaint, Carson Peters-Berger, now 18, persuaded Iliana “Lily” Peters to leave a trail and explore the surrounding woods as she was riding her bicycle home from her aunt’s house in Chippewa Falls on April 24, 2022.
Her father reported the fourth-grade student missing around 9 pm on Sunday after she failed to return home.
The two homes were about a six-minute walk apart.
The young girl’s body was discovered the following day.
An autopsy determined she had been beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted.
Peters-Berger, who was 14 at the time of the homicide, was arrested the day after Peters’ body was located. He was charged as an adult.
At the time of his arrest, prosecutors said the eighth grader admitted in statements to law enforcement that “his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go” when they left the house together and headed down the walking trail.
Chippewa County Judge Steven Gibbs accepted the guilty plea on Wednesday and handed down the life sentence.
Under a plea agreement, two additional charges, first-degree sexual assault causing great bodily harm and first-degree child sexual assault involving a child under 13, were dismissed.
Peters-Berger’s attorneys, Michael Cohen and Alicia Linzmeier, did not respond to emails requesting comment.
His defense team had previously tried to transfer the case to juvenile court, where proceedings are confidential, arguing he would not receive necessary mental health treatment within the adult justice system.
However, the judge refused, stating the severe nature of the offenses warranted trial as an adult. A state appeals court also affirmed keeping the case in adult court.
