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Trial to begin next week for Indiana teen accused of killing 2 siblings

Nickalas J. Kedrowitz will be tried as an adult, despite being 13 at the time of the 2017 killings.

RIPLEY COUNTY, Ind. — NOTE: The above video is from a previous report with the mother of the suspect and victims.

The trial is set to begin for an Indiana boy, who was 13 when he allegedly killed two of his young siblings.

Nickalas J. Kedrowitz will be tried as an adult in the May 2017 killing of his 23-month-old half-sister, Desiree McCartney, and the July 2017 killing of his 11-month-old stepbrother, Nathaniel Ritz.

Both were killed at the family's home in Osgood, about 60 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

A judge previously found Kedrowitz competent to stand trial and ordered him to adult court. Ripley County Prosecutor Richard Hertel told the Madison Courier that Indiana law allows juveniles as young as 12 to be tried as adults for murder.

RELATED: Indiana teen to be tried as adult in 2 siblings' deaths

13News spoke with Christina McCartney, the mother of the children, in 2018.

"I'm grateful for the time I got to spend with my babies, but my heart breaks for the time that I am missing that has been taken from me, by the hands of my own son," McCartney said, crying.

McCartney said she still loved her son, despite what investigators say the then-13-year-old did to his little brother and sister.

"No mother would ever want to think about that being their son," McCartney said.

RELATED: 'They didn't deserve this': Mother of alleged teen killer speaks out

According to court documents, the teen confessed to killing his younger siblings after a relative reported to investigators he also mutilated a kitten. Investigators say the teen told them he put blankets over his sister and brother's heads to free them from the hell in which he was living.

When investigators asked what that meant, he reportedly said doing chores.

Until her son confessed, McCartney said she saw no signs her eldest child had any problems.

"He did great in school. He didn't show these symptoms," she explained. "When I found out the truth, I had him put into a mental hospital."

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