RIPLEY COUNTY, Ind. (Scripps News Indianapolis) — A Indiana teen was sentenced to 100 years in prison Tuesday after he was convicted of killing his siblings at age 13.
Nickalas Kedrowtiz told detectives he suffocated his young siblings months apart in 2017 to “set them free” from “hell,” according to court documents.
In August, a jury found Kedrowtiz guilty of killing 23-month-old Desiree McCartney and 11-month-old Nathaniel Ritz.
Court documents said officers first responded to the residence on May 1, 2017, on reports of a 23-month-old not breathing. Desiree McCartney died five days later, according to WCPO.
Less than three months later, authorities responded to the same home for an 11-month-old child who was not breathing, WCPO reported. Nathaniel Ritz was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. A doctor told authorities the child died of asystole, a form of cardiac arrest, court documents state.
The deaths of Ritz and McCartney were both eventually ruled by coroners to be caused by asphyxiation and the manners were ruled homicides.
In August 2019, a year after Kedrowitz was arrested and charged with two counts of murder, the case was moved from juvenile court to the Ripley County Circuit so he could be tried as an adult.
In the court order, Ripley County Circuit Court Judge Ryan King said a doctor diagnosed Kedrowitz with Antisocial Personality Disorder. The doctor said Kedrowitz could “step over your dead body” without a care and is a lifelong danger.
The order also alleges he mutilated animals for entertainment and told his aunt, who has diabetes and a prosthetic leg, “maybe she just needs to die” because of her health conditions.
King and a probation officer both said the juvenile system wouldn’t be able to address and continue to address his needs, especially before he turned 21.
“The juvenile justice system is extremely limited in duration,” King wrote. “Nickalas would only be in the juvenile justice system for approximately five years. This is insufficient given that Nickalas needs long-term care and supervision. Leaving Nickalas in the juvenile justice system does not guarantee long-term care and supervision. In fact, it permits, if not guarantees, the opposite of that. Anything that may or may not happen after Nickalas reaches the age of 21 is totally speculative and would, by definition, not be part of the juvenile justice system.”
This story was originally published Feb. 1, by WRTV in Indianapolis, an E.W. Scripps Company.
