Victims’ families offer emotional testimony

Kim Smith

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 11:39 a.m.

Tears streaming down many of their faces, jurors in the murder trial of Terrell Young sat through 90 minutes of heart-wrenching testimony from his victims' families Thursday.

Young's defense attorneys will try to get the same sort of sympathy for their client today by putting his mother, sister and aunt on the stand to testify about his abusive childhood.

The jurors, who convicted Young on Tuesday of four counts of murder and 10 other felonies, were set to resume the trial's penalty phase today. Young could receive the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to authorities, Young, 20, Sikia Smith, 19, and Donte Johnson, 19, robbed a Terra Linda Avenue home on Aug. 14, 1998, after learning there was supposed to be $6,000 in cash and drugs in the home.

Four of the five men living in the home, Matthew Mowen, 19, Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, and Peter Talamantez, 17, were bound with duct tape and shot in the head. The fifth man, Gorringe's brother, Nick, was out of town at the time.

The robbers walked away with $240 in cash and a videocassette recorder.

Smith was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole earlier this summer. Johnson, the alleged gunman, is scheduled for trial in January.

Prosecutors called seven of the victims' family members to the stand Thursday afternoon so jurors could get to know the young men and understand the devastation wrought by their deaths. As they spoke, picture after picture was handed to the jurors.

Jurors learned that as a first grader Biddle set up an altar in his bedroom and offered bread as communion. They also heard about his dreams of joining either the military or the FBI.

Mowen had a habit of hitting his parents up for money whenever he saw a homeless person so he could give it to them and he wanted to one day become a chiropractor so he could help people.

His mother, Cynthia, described the anguish of having to make funeral arrangements for her son and then being told she also had to replace the body bag the funeral home had used at the murder scene.

Talamantez, whose grandfather taught him how to drive, was looking forward to getting his driver's license. He enjoyed life to the fullest and adored his two older brothers.

And Tracey Gorringe, the middle of three boys raised in a single-parent home, was known as a peace-maker who often brought home stray animals as a boy. He wanted to join a culinary union and one day open his own restaurant. He had just gotten a job as a line cook weeks before his death.

Perhaps the most emotional testimony of the day came from Nick Gorringe, who lost his brother and best friends that day. Struggling to maintain his composure at times, Gorringe expressed rage, overwhelming sadness and bewilderment throughout his testimony.

During most of his testimony, Gorringe was doubled over, obviously in emotional pain.

Gorringe said he was in Maine at a rock concert when he got a message about a family emergency.

"I thought it was about my grandmother, anything but this," Gorringe said, his voice cracking.

One year later he is still asking "Why? Why? Why?" Gorringe said, his voice rising.

"We thought everyone loved us. We never disrespected anyone. We never stole from anyone. We never robbed anyone," Gorringe said, wiping his eyes repeatedly. "We were all about love, man. That's all we were about."

Clark County District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski then cleared the courtroom so Young's mother, Willena Warren, could be brought in.

Warren was taken into custody Tuesday evening after she erupted into violence following her son's conviction. She is expected to appear before a justice of the peace today on charges of contempt of court and battery of a peace officer.

Pavlikowski brought her into the courtroom Thursday to find out if she still wanted to testify on her son's behalf and if she would behave if allowed to do so. After making sure she would be allowed to wear civilian clothes, Warren promised to act appropriately.

Pavlikowski warned her however, that she would still be shackled.

More than one dozen court security officers and Metro Police officers stood guard in the courtroom while Pavlikowski conversed with Warren.