down her Bermudian baby sitter.

Denver deputy District Attorney, Jason Dotson, filed the first degree murder charge against Jennifer Leigh Tombs in Denver District Court yesterday.

The charge carries an automatic sentence of life imprisonment without parole, but the death penalty also exists in Colorado.

It is not known whether the District Attorney's office will seek the death sentence.

The 16-year-old did not appear in court, but was represented by attorney Kurt Metsger.

She was yesterday transferred from a youth centre to the Denver city jail. She is due to appear before the court on October 15.

Tombs was charged with murder after the gunning down Latanya Lavallais, 23 -- the daughter of a Bermudian woman.

Ms Lavallais, who was only weeks away from starting a new life on the Island -- died instantly after being shot five times last Friday night.

She was killed after agreeing to look after the teenage delinquent daughter of the female minister of the church she and her mother, Valeria Vermont, born Cox, attended.

Ms Lavallais is understood to have gone to the girl's home in the Montbello district of the city as arranged on Friday night and was shot sometime between 10 p.m. and 11 a.m.

BERMUDIAN BDA