Baby sitter being held on $1M bond

COEUR d'ALENE - The 25-year-old female baby sitter accused of killing a 3-year-old boy is being held in Kootenai County jail on a $1 million bond.

Amanda Leann Skogen of Post Falls made her first appearance in 1st District Court Tuesday and was charged with first-degree murder.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh said Skogen failed a polygraph test and then confessed to shoving Cohen Johnson, also of Post Falls.

A preliminary hearing will be scheduled within two weeks. The prosecutors office has 60 days to decide whether it will seek the death penalty. McHugh didn't comment whether the office would.

Johnson died at Sacred Heart Medical Center on Friday after suffering a fractured skull during Monday's incident.

Police say Skogen, a family friend of the Johnsons, became angry when Cohen urinated on himself and shoved the boy on a carpeted floor with a concrete foundation. She tried to slap him to revive him, court reports state.

The only other person at the home in the 500 block of North Elm Road was Cohen's 2-year-old sister.

Skogen does not have a criminal history and police believe she doesn't have a history of losing her temper while baby sitting, according to the Post Falls Police Department. Skogen has baby sat the siblings off and on for several months.

When a child under 12 dies as a result of injuries from a battery, the act does not have to be pre-meditated to draw a first-degree murder charge.

It's the first murder charge in Post Falls in about 10 years, according to police.