The 11-year-old boy lolled his head back as his taped statement began to play Tuesday in a packed juvenile courtroom.

        “I was hitting her with my knee ... only once,” the boy told police investigators on the tape. “She wasn't crying when I kneed her.”

Takeya

        Then, “she just went to sleep. We kept trying to wake her up. There was white stuff coming out of her nose. We kept trying to wake her up. But she wouldn't.”

        He was talking about Aug. 15, the day his 8-year-old sister, Takeya Bryant, was beaten to death in the family's Northside apartment.

        Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Rob Dziech played the statement on the first day of the boy's trial on juvenile murder charges Tuesday. He is not being identified because of his age. The trial resumes Monday.

        On the tape, the boy went on to say that he put his ear to his sister's chest — just as he would to a seashell from the ocean.

        “But (the sound) was real low,” he said.

        Takeya was pronounced dead at Children's Hospital Medical Center after she lapsed into unconsciousness at the apartment and a cousin called 911. Her brother and the 13-year-old cousin, who was baby-sitting, are accused of beating her to death. The cousin also is accused of sexually assaulting her.

        Takeya's mother, African Evans, was working in Clifton that day. Ms. Evans, who moved to Walnut Hills after her daughter's death, sat in the courtroom Tuesday, offering her son support. With his ankles shackled and his hands cuffed, the pudgy boy at times looked around with curiosity.

        “The place looked like a wreck. It was beyond normal sloppiness. This was on the far end of nastiness,” said Cincinnati Police Officer Ronald Camden, describing open, overflowing garbage containers and disarray throughout the apartment.

        He testified that his involvement in the case started at the hospital, when he took pictures of Takeya's bruised body. He later visited the Georgia Avenue apartment to gather evidence in her murder case — including a plastic table that Takeya broke when she fell during the beating and a turquoise shirt ripped down the front by emergency workers.

        He also discovered the girl's panties in the bedroom closet and sent those to the coroner's office.

        Takeya's 9-year-old sister also testified Tuesday. She said Aug. 15 started like any other summer day: she, her three siblings and her cousin woke up and began cleaning.

        Then the two older boys began hitting Takeya. She said her brother hit her sister at least three times in the breastplate and rib cage that day.

        She agreed that she and her siblings were prone to fighting, but said this day was different. Takeya's brother and cousin slapped, kicked and kneed Takeya — and continued kicking her while she was on the floor.

        They didn't stop when Takeya began crying. She said her cousin also pushed Takeya so hard that she dented the drywall.

        “Did you ever see them kick Takeya like that before?” asked Rob Dziech, chief assistant prosecutor.

        "No,” the sister replied.

        She said Takeya and her cousin spent some time alone in her mother's bedroom before the child took a bath. Soon after, she said, Takeya seemed dizzy and began bumping into things. Her cousin let her have a juice box and told her to lie on the couch.

        The sister remembers Takeya's voice becoming low and her eyes closing.

        Then, “she wasn't breathing,” said the girl.

        In opening statements, the boy's attorney, David Montgomery, said the boy “did nothing to cause the death of his sister, Takeya. The contact was nothing more than the residuals of childish horseplay. He had no reason to think this play fight would have had any consequences.”

        Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Sylvia Sieve Hendon is overseeing the trial. If convicted of juvenile murder charges, the 11-year-old could become a ward of the state Department of Youth Services.

        In December, Judge Hendon will decide if the cousin is competent to stand trial on juvenile murder charges as well.

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