Prosecutors in Las Vegas will seek the death penalty for a woman accused of torturing and killing a 4-year-old boy left in her care by a family friend.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacqueline Bluth told the Las Vegas Review-Journal a committee that considers potential death penalty cases for her office approved the move regarding Crystal Stephens on Thursday. Stephens, 42, would become the only woman on death row in Nevada if convicted and ultimately sentenced to die, the newspaper reports.

Stephens is facing charges of murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and 24 counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment in the death of Brandon Steckler Jr., a nonverbal boy with autism who died in a hospital a day after he was found in a Las Vegas apartment in late July with burns, bruises, rib fractures and other injuries. He also suffered from malnutrition, sepsis, pneumonia and had methamphetamine in his system, KLAS reports.

“I didn’t even know it was the same child,” Bluth told the station. “I was blown away.”

The boy’s mother has said she left him and his sister in Stephens’ care on July 6 as she was living in a domestic violence shelter. Stephens later refused to return the boy, later telling police he had drowned, KLAS reports.

“I think what stands out is the number of injuries, the variety of injuries and the brutality,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told the station. “This is one of those cases where you have to wonder what goes through somebody’s mind that would cause them to inflict these kinds of injuries on a defenseless child.”

Wolfson said he doesn’t intend to charge the boy’s mother because she was unaware her child was being harmed. She also didn’t know he was hospitalized until receiving an email from child protective services, KLAS reports.

Stephens, who is scheduled to be formally arraigned next week, remains held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center, jail records show.