NORFOLK, Va. — A Virginia teen pleaded guilty on Friday to fatally beating a 4-year-old boy living in the same home when he was 14 years old, prosecutors said.

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Robert Bolsinger-Hartshorn, 18, of Norfolk, pleaded guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the November 2018 death of 4-year-old Larkin Carter Carr, WAVY-TV reported. The boy died from blunt force trauma to his abdomen, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

As part of a plea agreement, Bolsinger-Hartshorn will remain in a juvenile detention facility until he is 21, The Virginian-Pilot reported. He will then serve five years of supervised probation after he is released, according to the newspaper.

Bolsinger-Hartshorn was originally charged with second-degree murder, but prosecutors agreed to the lesser charge because they did not believe he intended to kill the boy, Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gordon Ufkes said during Friday’s hearing.

“We wrenched with this case for quite some time,” Ufkes told Circuit Judge Daniel Lannetti. “But honestly looking at it, it’s manslaughter all day long. It’s an unintentional killing.”

Bolsinger-Hartshorn had admitted to police that on Nov. 9, 2018, he hit the boy in the stomach with a chair while their parents were away from the home, WAVY reported. The teen called his parents, who called 911.

The boy became unresponsive and was not breathing when paramedics arrived at the home, according to the television station. Carr was pronounced dead at an area hospital.

The teen’s mother was in a relationship with Carr’s father, Hank Larkin Smith, when the boy was killed, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Bolsinger-Hartshorn and his mother, Catherine Seals, were living with Smith and his two young sons at the time, according to the newspaper.

While neither parent was accused of beating Carr, Smith and Seals also were charged in the case, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Prosecutors said the couple was also responsible for Carr’s death because they failed to protect him from Bolsinger-Hartshorn, who had allegedly beaten the 4-year-old on multiple occasions.

Seals pleaded guilty in 2019 to felony homicide and three child abuse and neglect charges. She will be sentenced next month, according to the newspaper. A jury found Smith guilty of the same charges, and he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

According to The Virginian-Pilot, defense attorney Tiffany Crawford said that Bolsinger-Hartshorn also was abused as a child, mostly by his mother’s boyfriends.

“People who are abused abuse other people,” Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi told WAVY. “(Bolsinger-Hartshorn) was effectively left to be the caregiver of Larkin while the people who were supposed to be caring for Larkin were gone.

“That’s not a responsibility we put on 14-year-olds.”

Crawford said the teen has turned his life around while in detention. He has graduated from the facility’s high school program and was a speaker at the ceremony, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Bolsinger-Hartshorn has also obtained several training certificates, Crawford added.

“I recognize and acknowledge that there is a little boy who will never ever be able to grow up, and that is just heartbreaking,” Crawford told WAVY. “But justice for him, in my opinion, is that we give Robbie the tools that he needs to become rehabilitated and productive and to go on and live his life in a manner that he can now influence other young men or help others not to get caught up in violence.”

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