JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Video was released Wednesday by the State Attorney's office of Cristian Fernandez meeting with a detective about the sexual assault allegations against him involving his 5-year-old half brother.
In the video Fernandez, 13 now but 12 years old at the time of the recording, is treated very much like an adult and is asked if he understands his constitutional rights.
"I have to read you your rights, OK?" said the detective. "Because you have the right to talk to me and not talk to me, OK? And if you are willing to talk, I'll sign the bottom and you'll sign the bottom OK?"
The detective also tells Fernandez that she understands why he is in jail, but that they are not going to speak to him about murder charges.
"I know that you're currently in jail for something and I'm not here to talk about that okay," she said. "It's not necessary that you bring that up and I'm not here to talk about that, it's something totally different that I want to discuss with you."
"If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer one will be appointed to you before questioning," explained the detective. "If you do answer questions you have the right to stop answering them at any time, do you understand everything I've said?" asked the detective. "Do you wish to talk to me today Cristian?"
"What are we going to talk about?" Fernandez answered.
Channel 4 went through 19 pages of documents prosecutors released Wednesday. In those documents it reads, "the 5-year-old victim gave history of being sexually assaulted by the 12-year-old suspect."
In one instance, the 5-year-old said Fernandez "held him down during this incident." According to the documents, that same boy was afraid to come forward saying "Don't tell Cristian, he'll beat me."
Throughout the documents there are graphic descriptions of what the 5-year-old said Fernandez would do to him, and the effects he felt after the acts. The 5-year-old victim said, "that it made him feel sad after the suspect (Fernandez) would do these things to him."
The sexual assault charges Fernandez faces are totally separate from the murder charges he is facing that have caused him to be charged as an adult. Fernandez was 12 when he was accused of murdering his 2-year-old half brother.