READING, Pa.—A judge has ruled that a teenager can be tried as an adult on murder charges in the January drowning death of her newborn baby.

The Reading Eagle ( http://bit.ly/NFyN13) says Berks County Judge Scott Lash on Friday denied a public defender's request to try the 16-year-old Kutztown girl in juvenile court.

Authorities allege that the teenager gave birth and put the infant in a bathtub while she washed herself and him, then saw that he wasn't breathing, wrapped him in a bedsheet and put him in a trash can.

Prosecutors have charged her with criminal homicide and have not decided whether to pursue murder or manslaughter. Lash said a manslaughter case would be moved to juvenile court, but prosecutors can pursue first- or third-degree murder charges in adult court.

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Information from: Reading Eagle, http://www.readingeagle.com/