Indiana teen sentenced 100 years for killing younger siblings

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

WXIX reports 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.

A judge sentenced Kedrowitz to 100 total years in jail on Tuesday. Each murder charge carries a 50-year sentence that will run consecutively.

"This death rocked a community."

Nickalas Kredowtiz will serve 100 years for killing his young siblings in their Osgood, Indiana home in 2017. Kredowitz was 13 at the time but tried as an adult. He told police he was freeing the children from "some sort of hell." @FOX19 pic.twitter.com/DCObFUs1o9
— Trevor Peters (@TrevorPetersTV) February 1, 2022

Kedrowitz was 13 years old when Ripley County Prosecutor Ric Hertel said he killed 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.”

Both children died of suffocation in the family’s home in Osgood, officials ruled. McCartney died May 6 at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Ritz died 81 days later.

Kerdowitz was arrested in August 2018. 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,” Hertel said.

Indiana law allows juveniles as young as 12 to be tried as adults for murder.

Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.