A 10-year-old boy from Wayne County was being held without bail Tuesday after being charged as an adult in the killing of a 90-year-old woman who was held down with a walking stick and beaten at her caretaker's home. 
 
 State police said when the boy, Tristen Kurilla, lost his temper with the woman Saturday, he grabbed a cane and hooked it around her neck and then held her down and beat her. 
 
 State police have charged the boy with criminal homicide in the death of Helen Novak. 
 
 "I killed that lady," Tristen, of Damascus Township, told a trooper Saturday during an interview at the state police barracks in Honesdale. 
 
 The boy was visiting his grandfather, Anthony Virbitsky, Saturday at his Damascus home, Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards said. Virbitsky was Novak's caretaker. 
 
 While visiting Virbitsky, Tristen went into Novak's room around 10 a.m. to ask a question. Tristen told police Novak yelled at him to leave the room. 
 
 Tristen, "very mad" at Novak's response, left the room and grabbed a wooden cane, police said. The boy told police Novak was sitting upright at the end of her bed when he came behind her, hooked the cane around her throat and pulled back. 
 
 "I was only trying to hurt her," Tristen told police. 
 
 Tristen said he pushed the cane into Novak's throat for four to five seconds. He took the cane off her throat then punched her five times in the throat and five times in the stomach, according to police. 
 
 The boy went to his grandfather and told him Novak was bleeding from the mouth, police said. Virbitsky told police he did not find any blood when he first checked on Novak around 10:30 a.m., but the woman was "breathing heavy and looked scared." 
 
 He found her unresponsive around 11 a.m. and called 911, the district attorney said. 
 
 An autopsy Monday at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale by Dr. Gary Ross found blunt force trauma to Novak's neck. Ross told police Novak's injuries were consistent with Tristen's account and identified one of the blows to her neck as the cause of her death. 
 
 No bail was set and Tristen was sent to Wayne County Prison. He is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 22. 
 
 Although charged as an adult, Tristen can petition the court for a hearing asking to move his case to juvenile court, Edwards said. 
 
 He was charged as an adult because homicide is excluded from the offenses that juveniles can be charged with under Pennsylvania laws, she said. He also was charged as an adult with aggravated assault. 
 
 His mother told police the boy had a history of "mental difficulties." His mental state may be considered if he later petitions the court to transfer his case to juvenile court, the district attorney's office said. 
 
 Joe MacDonald of Reuters contributed to this story. ||||| Damascus Township, Wayne County- As students returned to class at Damascus Elementary School Tuesday, there was one face missing. 
 
 
 
 Fifth grader Tristen Kurilla, who is 10 years old, is in the Wayne County prison facing a criminal homicide charge. 
 
 
 
 He is charged as an adult, the only way allowed by law according to district attorney Janine Edwards. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "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. 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. 
 
 
 
 "Tristen really kind of doesn't have an idea of what is going on" said Attorney Bernie Brown who will represent the 10-year-old. 
 
 
 
 He has filed a bail petition to get the boy out of prison. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "Jail is still jail, no matter what part of the facility you are in" said Brown 
 
 
 
 The crime, the arrest and the charges have stunned this normally quiet part of northeastern Pennsylvania. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "That's pretty shocking. Ive never heard of that before...but wow" said Walter Yanacek of Damascus Township. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "It is unbelievable at that age, well, any age but 10 years old!" said Harold Greaves of Damascus Township 
 
 
 
 
 
 "it's a shame. I hope the kid gets help and the family gets help" noted David Price of Tyler Hill 
 
 
 
 Police and prosecutors say by putting Kurilla in prison, they are just following the law, because they say juvenile detention centers will not accept a child charged with homicide 
 
 
 
 SOT: Janine Edwards 
 
 Wayne County District Attorney 
 
 "it is not a choice I made, it's not a choice the warden made, it's not a choice Pennsylvania State Police made" 
 
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– 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.