New York, Oct 18 (IANS): A 145-kilo woman in the US' Florida punished her nine-year-old cousin by sitting on her, causing the child to go into a fatal cardiac arrest, authorities said.

Veronica Posey, 64, is facing a murder charge, the authorities told The Washington Post.

Posey told investigators that her cousin, Dericka Lindsay, had been misbehaving, so she decided to sit on top of the child as punishment.

Minutes later, Lindsay said she could not breathe. She was unconscious by the time Posey stood up, according to an arrest report from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.

Lindsay, who was just a little over three-feet tall and weighed 33-kilo, the report said was less that one-fourth of Posey's weight.

The incident occurred last week in a home in Pensacola in Florida.

Lindsay's mother, Grace Smith, 69, told investigators that she was having trouble disciplining her daughter. So she called Posey, her niece, to help discipline the child.

It was unclear from the arrest report how long Posey sat on the child.