The 12-year-old boy was 4 when his little brother died at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend .

“When I was younger, he used to hit me and my brothers a lot,” he told a judge Monday. “Even though it’s been years, I still flinch when someone moves too fast around me. My body remembers being scared.”

He misses his 2-year-old brother Nicolas Rodriguez-Tienda , he said, and wishes he could have protected him.

“If I could change places with my brother Nico, I would,” he added.

District Judge Carli Kierny ordered a sentence of 34 years to life in prison for Emanuel Flores, 37, who committed the 2017 killing.

“Remember, you did nothing wrong,” the judge told the boy who spoke.

“This has always stood out to me as one of the most heinous cases I have,” she added later in the hearing. “Just th

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