KAILUA, Hawai'i — A Big Island teenager accused of killing her infant son is to remain in a Honolulu mental health facility pending further court hearings, a Family Court judge ruled yesterday.

Judge Aley Auna Jr. ordered the 16-year-old girl, who has not been publicly identified and who did not appear in court, to remain under the care of the Department of Health at The Queen's Medical Center, where she has been for a month.

Auna said the girl is to be held by the department's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division for at least a "short while" longer for medication management and stabilization.

The girl was arrested and charged with second-degree murder following the Oct. 12 death of her 4-month-old son at a home in Kalaoa.

Police, responding to a call of an accidental stabbing, found the infant nearly decapitated in a bedroom of the home.

The child's mother was the only other person in the home at the time, police said. The infant's father had returned to the Mainland to find work.

An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be traumatic injury to the neck. Further laboratory test results are pending.

The young mother was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, which will determine the next step in the proceedings.

Prosecutors have indicated they will seek to have the teen tried as an adult.

A second-degree murder conviction carries a possible life sentence with the possibility of parole.

As is standard in juvenile cases, another hearing was set in seven days.