Stunned defendant listens in silence at murder trial

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1999 | 10:41 a.m.

Before opening statements began in his murder trial, Terrell Cochise Young was allowed to return to the courtroom where his outbursts during jury selection last week had resulted in his removal and a jolt from a security stun belt.

District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski told the 20-year-old defendant that he could participate in his trial if he agreed to behave. If he didn't, he would be hauled off.

Left unspoken was the possibility of another debilitating zap of the stun belt -- in essence a remote-controlled stun gun device.

"Do you understand?" Pavlikowski asked.

"Yes sir," Young replied meekly.

Young is the second of three defendants to stand trial in the murders of four young men during a robbery on Aug. 14, 1998.

At the end of the holdup -- which garnered only a couple of hundred dollars, a VCR and a video game -- each victim was killed with a bullet fired into the back of the head.

Not only was Young fitted with the stun belt for Tuesday's session, but his arms were pinned to his sides with restraints. During his outbursts last week, he scattered papers, overturned the prosecution's table and spit on his own lawyers.

The last incident resulted in his being shocked into submission and then hauled out of court as bewildered jurors looked on.

Those jurors, who must decide Young's guilt or innocence and might have to decide if he lives or dies, on Tuesday listened to Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon portray the defendant as a willing participant in the quadruple murder. The home on Terra Linda Avenue, near Nellis Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, was targeted because a fourth man, who has not been charged, believed there was $6,000 in cash and a quantity of drugs there.

Guymon said that was the result of one victim, 19-year-old Matthew Mowen, bragging to the fourth man that he had been working on the road with the rock band Phish and had made a lot of money.

"The seed was planted," Guymon told the jury.

He said the three alleged bandits -- Young, Sikia Smith, 19, and Donte Johnson, 19 -- went to the home and forced the two victims there at the time to lie on the floor where they were bound with duct tape and robbed. The third victim arrived a short time later and eventually the fourth victim came to the house.

They also were held at gunpoint and bound while the home was ransacked.

Guymon said confessions to Metro Police detectives by Young and Smith indicated that when the robbery was completed, Johnson turned up the stereo and stood over each victim to fire the fatal shots.

In addition to Mowen, the victims were Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, and Peter Talamantez, 17.

Although Young is not alleged to have been the triggerman, Guymon said he is equally guilty of first-degree murder under the Nevada law that makes every participant in a robbery responsible for whatever may occur.

"The act of one is the act of all," the prosecutor said.

But defense attorney Martin Hastings said Young wasn't a willing participant in the quadruple slaying and was only there because he was ordered to by Johnson, who he described as "the meanest S.O.B. you'll ever hear about in your life."

"Donte was the leader. Donte was in control," Hastings said. "Terrell was afraid of Donte and operated under duress.

"Don't read half of the book," he cautioned during opening statements.

Guymon countered that Young and Johnson were roommates with the uncharged suspect and laughed about the murders in front of a man who had been a friend of the victims as well as the defendants.

That man, Ace Hart, testified Tuesday that Young admitted he had wanted to kill the victims' puppies also, but Johnson overruled that idea.

Footprints of the puppies in the victims' blood could be seen in many of the police photos of the murder scene.

Hart said he had became upset when he saw a television news report of the multiple murders and realized he knew the victims. He explained the uncharged suspect told him who the killers were and he confronted them about their motives.

Hart testified that Young and Johnson laughed and said if they were going to kill one, they had to kill all of them

Young glared menacingly at the witness throughout his testimony.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said the prosecution case could be completed by late Wednesday or early Thursday.

He expects jury deliberations to begin after closing arguments Thursday.

If the jury convicts Young of first-degree murder, it would then have to decide after a penalty hearing whether the appropriate punishment would be life in prison with or without the possibility of parole or death by lethal injection.

The case, however, could end prematurely if Young accepts a plea bargain to avoid the possibility of a death penalty.

Guymon told the judge that the prosecution always has been willing to plea bargain the case, but defense attorney Lew Wolfbrandt said there always has been a condition that Young testify against the fourth suspect.