Attorney Mark Reichel told KTVU-TV last evening that his client has been charged with second degree murder and a special allegation for use of a dangerous weapon.
Reichel had said earlier yesterday that the boy might have lied about seeing a long-haired intruder fleeing the scene but that doesn't make the boy the killer.
Also yesterday, Reichel visited the home where 8-year-old Leila Fowler was found April 27 with knife wounds. Her brother was the only one home.
The children's parents believed their daughter was fine when they made an emergency call to authorities from another location.
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A recording released yesterday indicates a woman called the emergency dispatcher after getting a call about a mystery intruder from the girl's 12-year-old brother, who was arrested Saturday in connection with the killing.
The caller, who said she was the girl's mother, said the children, including Leila Fowler, were OK. She was not at home at the time.
"My children are at home alone and a man just ran out of our house. My older son was in the bathroom and my daughter started screaming. He came out and a man was in the house," the panicked caller says in the call made April 27. "They said they're OK."
In fact, Leila Fowler was dying of stab wounds.
Her brother told police he scared off an intruder. For two weeks, Calaveras County sheriff's investigators searched door to door for witnesses and evidence.
Reichel, who met with the boy yesterday, said his client might have made up a "macho" story about scaring away the intruder because he was scared.
Reichel said he and his law partner Steve Plesser had not yet seen the evidence against their young client, which is in the hands of the Calaveras County district attorney's office.
The boy is due to appear in juvenile court today.