The boy was visiting his grandfather, Anthony Virbitsky, Saturday at his Damascus home, Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards said. Edwards 
 
 
 
 On Saturday, state police say the 10-year-old came up behind 90-year-old Helen Novak while she was sitting on a bed at this home on SkyLake Road in Damascus Township. Kurilla is accused of choking her for several seconds with a walking stick and then punching her at least five times in the throat. Fifth grader Tristen Kurilla, who is 10 years old, is in the Wayne County prison facing a criminal homicide charge. "Under Pennsylvania law it is mandatory, it is not discretionary that a criminal homicide charge be first directly filed in adult court by the prosecutor regardless of the age of the perpetrator" said D.A.
– A 10-year-old boy who confessed to killing an elderly woman is in prison in Wayne County, Pa., and has been charged as an adult with criminal homicide. According to the Morning Call, Tristen Kurilla was visiting his grandfather on Saturday when he argued with Helen Novak, the 90-year-old woman his grandfather was caring for. Police say the boy has told them that after Novak yelled at him to leave the room, he became "very mad," hooked a wooden cane around her neck, pushed it into her throat for a few seconds, and then punched her multiple times in the throat and stomach. Tristen then went and told his grandfather that Novak was bleeding from the mouth. The grandfather called 911 after finding her unresponsive. Police say he told them "I killed that lady," but he "was only trying to hurt her." The coroner determined that blunt force trauma to the neck was the cause of death and ruled the death a homicide, reports the Pocono Record. The boy—whose mother told cops he has a history of "mental difficulties"—was charged as an adult because juveniles can't be charged with homicide in Pennsylvania, according to the district attorney's office. Tristen is being held without bail and his next hearing will be Oct. 22. The lawyer who will represent the fifth-grader has filed a petition to get him out of jail. The boy "really kind of doesn't have an idea of what is going on," he tells WBRE.