Man Kills 4-Year-Old Who Dropped Juice On Video Game Console

A man was charged with killing a 4-year-old girl who had spilled juice on his Xbox console. The incident took place Dec. 13, when the accused was babysitting the girl, Skylar Mendez, who was the daughter of his girlfriend.

Johnathan Fair, a 19-year-old from Waukegan in Illinois, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. He allegedly beat the child and pushed her down the hall, making her unconscious. Fair lived with Mendez and her mother, who was not present when the incident took place.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the accused rushed Mendez to a local hospital after she became unconscious following the attack. Fair, who later admitted to the charges, initially told the doctors that the girl had fallen, hit her head and became unconscious. Mendez died a few days after the doctors at another hospital in Chicago performed an unsuccessful operation to relieve the pressure on her brain.

Police reportedly received a call from Vista Medical Center East on Dec. 13, a community hospital in the city, around 11:30 p.m. (12:30 a.m. EST) about a child with head injury.

The report said “officers were initially told that the child received the injury from a falling while in her apartment in the 1600 block of Sunset Avenue,” referring to a statement released by Waukegan police after Fair’s arrest. But later, Fair told the police that he had hit the girl "really hard" and beaten her as punishment.

The accused was initially charged with aggravated battery but later, given the severity of the situation, the charge was increased.

According to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, Fair was charged by a Lake County grand jury on Wednesday with bail set at $5 million. Fair is currently in custody pending trial on Feb. 17 before the Lake County Circuit Judge James Booras.

Prosecutor Steve Scheller said Thursday the authorities would seek life in prison for Fair for the alleged “heinous” crime. He added the accused would face a sentence ranging from 60 years to natural life in prison, if convicted.

Cecilia Villalpando, the girl's aunt, created a GoFundMe page on Dec. 16, to collect money to meet funeral expenses. Initially, the family believed that the girl had died by an accident but later they came to know that it was committed by a “monster.”

“We have found out that this was no tragic accident. Our sweet angels life was taken from us by a heartless human being,” Villalpando wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Just adding more pain into our lives knowing that someone took our baby girl.”

The page garnered over $3,000 against the set goal of $10,000. The page has stopped accepting donations.