A nine-year-old boy admitted attempted rape and felonious assault in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court on Monday in connection with an attack on a five-year-old Cleveland girl, while a hearing began for a second child accused in the case.
The boy's admissions came under a plea agreement as proceedings opened Sept. 28, more than a year after the victim was found injured in a field. Judge Kristin Sweeney scheduled his disposition, the juvenile equivalent of sentencing, for Nov. 20, according to 19 News.
The second child, a girl who was 10 at the time of the attack and is now 11, has not admitted the allegations. Prosecutors are pursuing charges of attempted murder, rape, strangulation, felonious assault and kidnapping against her.
In opening statements, prosecutors alleged that the younger girl had been strangled with her own shirt. Defense lawyers argued that the state could not establish the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, according to WKYC. The five-year-old survived the attack.
The boy's agreement narrows his case to two admitted offenses rather than the five charges originally brought against him. His admissions do not determine the outcome of the separate proceeding against the girl, whose adjudication hearing-the juvenile court equivalent of a trial-is expected to last several days.
WKYC reported that prosecutors listed 28 witnesses and that the boy was expected to testify Wednesday. A Cleveland police detective and children who were at the scene were among the first witnesses called.
The proceedings follow months of uncertainty over whether the two accused children were competent to participate. Evaluations in March found both not competent, and Sweeney ordered competency-restoration services through the court's diagnostic clinic on April 1.
Arranging those services raised additional questions about the older child's placement. According to court records described by 19 News, a change in her living arrangements was needed to assess her competency accurately, but an appropriate placement was not found.
Prosecutors then requested that she remain in a detention center during the restoration process. The court determined that returning home was not in her best interest, and the diagnostic clinic provided services at the center, 19 News reported.
Both children were subsequently found competent, allowing their cases to proceed. They had previously been placed on home detention after prosecutors filed charges in October 2025.
The attack occurred Sept. 13, 2025, in a field near East 148th Street and St. Clair Avenue on Cleveland's east side. The victim's mother, Antavia Kennibrew, found her daughter injured and later described the experience in an interview with 19 News.
"I literally saw the worst thing ever," Kennibrew told the station in 2025. The Cleveland Division of Police's Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit investigated the assault before charges were brought against the two children the following month.
