Troubled 13-Year-Old Boy Charged With Murdering One Half-Brother And Sexually Abusing Another
Sept. 17 2012, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter
A 13-year-old Florida boy whose life was plagued with violence and neglect went from victim to perpetrator when he allegedly beat to death his two-year-old half-brother and sexually assaulted another sibling.
A year after the vicious attacks, Cristian Fernandez has been charged as an adult and is now the youngest inmate awaiting trial in Duval County, Florida, reported WTSP.com, and if convicted, he could face life in prison.
The possibly of a life sentence has caused controversy and emotional debate as to whether the punishment is too strict for the teen who suffered a horrific childhood at the hands of his dysfunctional family.
At age two, Fernandez was found naked and dirty wandering a South Florida street at 4 a.m. while under the 'care' of his grandmother, who had kept him in a dirty, cocaine-filled motel room. His mother, who was only 14 at the time, was nowhere to be found and both she and her son ended up being sent into foster care.
Born into violence after being conceived during a sexual assault, life did not get easier for the boy, who was sexually abused by a cousin at age eight and then severely beaten by his stepfather, who then committed suicide before the police came to arrest him. His only defe