12-year-old to be tried as adult in murder of his 2-year-old brother - The Imperfect Parent

Fernandez will be tried as an adult for murdering his 2-year-old brother, Photo via The Florida Times Union

A Jacksonville Florida 12-year-old boy will be facing life in prison if convicted of the beating death of his 2-year-old half brother in their family apartment.

State Attorney Angela Corey says a grand jury indicted the boy on Thursday.

Cristian Fernandez,12, was indicted on 1st degree murder charges in the beating death of David Galarriago,2, at the family?s Southside apartment. Fernandez and Galarriago were half-brothers.

The defense contends the charges are built alongside a dossier exposing family turmoil, sexual battery and an abusive stepfather?s suicide.

?The whole system has failed him. This child clearly is a victim,? said Assistant Public Defender Rob Mason, one of two attorneys assigned to defend Fernandez. ?We think he can be rehabilitated and, as his lawyers, we will fight for that.?

According to The Florida Times Union, documents released in the case Friday suggest Fernandez understood that he did something wrong. Detectives who interviewed him wrote in the arrest report that Fernandez was worried about what would happen not only to Galarriago, who later died at the hospital, but to himself.Court documents also show that police suspected Fernandez of breaking Galarriago?s leg in January before he beat the toddler to death in March.�

Fernandez has been examined by two forensic psychologists who found him to be emotionally underdeveloped but essentially reformable despite a tough life.Mason said Fernandez?s father has never been around, partly because he went to prison on sexual assault charges after impregnating Fernandez?s mother.�

Biannela Susana, 25, had Fernandez when she was� just 12 years old.

Susanna and her son were put into the foster care system when Fernandez was 2 and she was 14, Mason said, because authorities found the toddler walking around dirty and naked outside a South Florida motel while his grandmother, who would have been about 34 at the time, nursed a drug habit inside

Documentation also indicates that abuse was occurring regularly in the home from the beginning of Fernandez?s young life. The turmoil included his stepfather shooting and killing himself in front of the family to avoid arrest on child abuse charges.

Susana has also been charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence in Galarriago?s death.

Police say she knew Fernandez was beating the toddler but did nothing to intervene and lied to state investigators when they began asking questions about the apparent abuse.

Prosecutors haven?t discounted Fernandez?s upbringing but argue the crime was too serious to keep in the juvenile system.

After announcing that a grand jury indicted Fernandez Thursday, State Attorney Angela Corey said his case posed questions about public safety that would be best decided in the adult court system.

That means the 5-foot-1-inch, 140-pound Kernan Middle School student is leaving a juvenile holding facility for the Duval County jail, although he?ll be held with other juveniles there.

It also means Fernandez is subject to a life sentence if he?s convicted of first-degree murder.

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNH3TPU02-HJDCpC5Nvcb4z2Ic4PDQ&url=http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/06/05/12-year-old-to-be-tried-as-adult-in-murder-of-his-2-year-old-brother/

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