Teen gets 100 years in prison for murder of two toddler siblings

A minor boy from Osgood, Indiana has been sentenced to 100 years in prison for the deaths of his two toddler siblings.

Nickalas Kedrowitz, 17, was pronounced guilty last year of two counts of murder for the deaths of his sister Desiree McCartney, two, and stepbrother Nathaniel Ritz, 11-months-old. Desiree had died on May 6, 2017, at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, while Nathaniel died less than three months later on July 21, reports People magazine.

Autopsies determined that both children died of suffocation. Police began investigating Kedrowitz after his mother informed them that he had previously murdered a kitten. According to court testimony, another family member told the police that the teenager, who was only 13 at the time of the crime, had a temper like the comic book character the Incredible Hulk.

Kedrowitz later confessed to killing both the toddlers by smothering them, and told investigators that he had set them "free from this hell." Multiple family members revealed that the teenager admitted to putting blankets over the children's heads until they "stopped making noise."

However, his mother Christina McCartney defended him and insisted that her son was either directed to commit the crime by his abusive stepfather or he was trying to save his siblings from the man.

McCartney told Fox 59, "He witnessed him (stepfather) being mean to the babies. That he pushed them down on purpose. He would lock them up in the bedroom to try to shut them up. He painted a pretty bad picture. As a mom, that's hard to swallow that was going on, and I didn't know."

McCartney further claimed that her then-boyfriend didn't like the responsibilities of fatherhood and may have forced her son to kill his siblings. "He did it under threat. He was told that if he didn't do what he was being told he would be killed and that Stephen would kill me," she said, adding that true justice would be seeing her ex-boyfriend behind bars as well.

However, only Kedrowitz has been arrested for the murders, and was sentenced last week to 50 years in prison for each murder to be served consecutively. Prosecuting Attorney Ric Hertel said that the killings by the teenager were calculated and the harsh punishment given to him was justified.

"This wasn't some sort of heat of passion, one killing and then minutes or hours or even days later. We're talking months here, so we think that the consecutive part of the sentence was warranted and appropriate in this circumstance," he said.