Indiana teen sentenced for killing his young siblings

RIPLEY COUNTY, Ind. (WXIX) - A teenager was sentenced to a pair of 50-year terms that will run consecutively for the murders of his two young siblings.

Nickalas Kedrowitz was found guilty in 2021 on two counts of murder for the deaths of his 2-year-old sister Desiree McCartney and his 11-month-old stepbrother Nathaniel Ritz.

On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Kedrowitz to 100 total years in jail. Each murder charge carries a 50-year sentence.

Kedrowitz was 13 years old when Ripley County Prosecutor Ric Hertel said he killed his two young siblings.

Both children died of suffocation in the family’s Osgood home, officials ruled. 23-month-old Desiree died May 6, 2017, at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Nathaniel died 81 days later July 21, 2017.

Kedrowitz was arrested in August 2018 for the death of his siblings.

Nathaniel’s stepmother, Christina McCartney, said on May 1, 2017, she came home to find her daughter lifeless. McCartney said her son told her something was wrong and that Desiree ‘wasn’t breathing right.’

Officials say after Ritz’s death, the teen confessed.

“There were several remarks that were made to police about freeing the siblings from some sort of hell,” said Hertel.

McCartney says her teenage son was referring to his abusive stepdad who was living in the home with them.

“He witnessed him 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 said.

McCartney defended her teenage son and insisted he didn’t act alone.

McCartney says her then-current boyfriend didn’t like the responsibilities of fatherhood and she believes her son was forced 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,” said McCartney.

She said true justice would be seeing her ex-boyfriend behind bars as well.

No charges have been filed against McCartney’s ex-boyfriend, despite her claims.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.

Copyright 2022 WXIX. All rights reserved.