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Antonio Santiago Shooting Update: Judge wants trial in Ga. baby killing before year ends

De'Marquise Elkins is escorted into Superior Court during his bond hearing, Friday April 5, 2013, in Brunswick, Ga. AP Photo/Stephen Morton

(CBS/AP) BRUNSWICK, Ga. - A judge said Friday he wants a trial before the end of the year for De'Marquis Elkins, a Georgia teenager charged with fatally shooting a 13-month-old baby in the face during a street robbery two weeks ago.

Pictures: Ga. baby fatally shot in stroller

Glynn County Superior Court Judge Stephen Kelley didn't give a tentative trial date for 17-year-old Elkins. District Attorney Jackie Johnson told the judge she thought investigators would have evidence ready to share with Elkins' defense lawyers next month. The judge scheduled the suspect's next hearing for May 24.

"I do expect we will try this case by the end of this year," Kelley told the attorneys at the end of a bond hearing Friday morning.

The judge denied Elkins' request for bond, saying he was concerned the suspect might flee if he were released.

Elkins faces life in prison if convicted of malice murder in the March 21 slaying of baby boy Antonio Santiago. Police say the 1-year-old was shot in a robbery attempt. His mother, Sherry West, has said she was pushing her son in his stroller a few blocks from her apartment when two youths approached asking for money. When she refused, she said, one of them drew a gun and shot her in the leg before shooting her baby in the face.

An indictment last week identified Elkins as the person who pulled the trigger. Another teenager, 15-year-old Dominique Lang, has been charged with murder as an accomplice.

Complete coverage of Antonio Santiago's shooting death on Crimesider

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