Prosecutors want to lock a 12-year-old Hispanic up for the rest of his life - to stop him from killing again

Cristian Fernandez could become America's youngest ever lifer after being charged as an adult over the murder of his two-year-old brother. If Fernandez were charged as a juvenile and convicted he would be free by the time he is 21. Fernandez beat his younger brother David Galarriago to death at their home in Jacksonville, Florida, in March 2011. The two-year-old died from a fractured skull that caused bleeding on the brain. He died two days after being admitted to a hospital. An autopsy showed that the injuries were caused with blunt force trauma consistent with being punched in the head. Fernandez had previously assaulted his brother and broken his leg. Prosecutors decided to charge Fernandez as an adult rather than a juvenile defender after reviewing his history of violence and behavior. Fernandez's defence has compiled a dossier exposing family turmoil, sexual battery and an abusive stepfather’s suicide. His mother Biannela Susana, 25, had him when she was just 12-years-old. Both mother and child were put into the foster care system when Fernandez was two and she was 14 after 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. Documentation also indicates that abuse was occurring regularly in the home from the beginning of Fernandez’s young life. His stepfather shot himself in front of the family to avoid being arrested on child abuse charges. Fernandez’s biological father has never been around, partly because he went to prison on sexual assault charges after impregnating Fernandez’s mother.