11. Cristian Fernandez
On March 14th 2011, 12-year-old Cristian Fernandez beat his 2-year-old half brother to death while being left to watch him alone. Though the details of exactly what occurred that day remain unclear, it is thought that after their mother left their Florida home Cristian began being abusive to his sibling, eventually shoving him hard into a bookcase.
He was initially charged with first-degree murder, though this was changed to manslaughter in 2013 after a plea deal with prosecutors, meaning he will stay in juvenile until he’s 19.
Although it may be easy to see Cristian as something of a monster for doing something so horrific, details about his traumatic upbringing possibly hold clues as to how he came to commit the crime.
He was put into foster care at the age of two (along with his 14-year-old mother) after being found naked and dirty wandering the streets alone while in the care of his drug-addicted grandmother. He was also sexually assaulted by a cousin and badly beaten by his stepfather, who later committed suicide. With a clearer picture of his early life, it perhaps is not quite so shocking that Cristian ended up lashing out at his little brother.
Discussion about this post