9 of 12 Young jurors sought death penalty

Bill Gang

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

The jury that sentenced convicted quadruple killer Terrell Cochise Young to life in prison without the possibility of parole had been leaning toward the death penalty, but three jurors could not be persuaded to go along.

It took four days for the jurors to compromise on a verdict that would ensure Young wouldn't set foot again on the streets where he had cut a violent path.

The jurors did not talk publicly, but they did speak to the case's prosecutors, Gary Guymon and Robert Daskas.

The prosecutors, who admitted they are frustrated at not obtaining a death sentence for the 20-year-old defendant, said they were told the jury was deadlocked with nine jurors in favor of death and three who wanted to put him in prison.

The nine, Guymon said, finally compromised out of fear Young again would be the recipient of leniency from the judicial system if there were a hung jury.

The jury had been told at the trial that Young received probation just two weeks before the murders after pleading guilty to an attempted larceny charge that had been reduced from a robbery count. He also had been given breaks in juvenile court cases when he was younger.

What the jury didn't know was that a hung jury would have resulted in the punishment being decided by a three-judge panel. Such panels hand down the death penalty in about 90 percent of cases.

Guymon said one of the three holdouts simply refused to give a death sentence to a person who wasn't the one to pull the trigger.

Another holdout refused to consider the death penalty because Jeremy Strohmeyer -- whose rape and murder of a girl at a Primm casino made national headlines -- was not given the death penalty, Guymon said.

Strohmeyer actually avoided capital punishment by pleading guilty - the same deal Young was offered and rejected, although the jury was unaware of that.

Guymon said the third holdout declined to give reasons for not joining the majority.

As the compromise verdict was read in District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski's courtroom, Marie Biddle bitterly whispered, "Stupid, stupid" as tears ran down her face. Her son, Jeffrey Biddle, 19, was one of those murdered in the Aug. 14, 1998, robbery that turned deadly.

Cindy Mowen, the mother of victim Matthew Mowen, 19, sobbed openly as she hugged her husband, David Mowen, for comfort from their bitter disappointment.

He lamented later, "What is it going to take to get the death penalty for four murders?"

The Mowen family has attended most of the court sessions as did Sandy Viau, the mother of 20-year-old victim Tracey Gorringe.

She also broke into tears with the announcement that Young was avoiding the death sentence.

The fourth victim was 17-year-old Peter Talamantez.

Young's mother, Willena Warren, let out a wail of anguish as her son was being led back to jail after the hearing, prompting Cindy Mowen to snap, "What are you crying for? Your son is still alive."

Outside the courthouse, Vieu and Cindy Mowen angrily complained that Young's family will be able to visit him throughout his life and express their love for him, but the families of the victims can only visit a cemetery.

"I think justice would be to have his life taken also," Biddle said.

The thoughts of the Mowens also turned to Young's actions once he gets to prison.

"I'm fearful he will kill again, a bailiff or a guard," Cindy Mowen said.

"When will it stop?" David Mowen added. "How many lives will it take before they decide they have to do something (about people like Young). Let's get rid of them."

Young, who had confessed to his involvement in the incident, was not alleged to be the shooter although it was shown he was a key player in the plot to rob the victims.

After court, Guymon told the family, "I'm frustrated that we can't get over the hill" and obtain a death penalty for Young or the first of three defendants to stand trial in the case, 19-year-old Sikia Smith.

He was convicted early this summer of first-degree murder for his relatively minor role in ransacking the victims' house looking for cash and drugs, and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole.

"I could taste this one this time," Guymon said of his chances for the death sentence in the Young case. "But at least he's been held accountable. He'll never get out."

The triggerman is alleged to be Donte Johnson, 19, who is in jail awaiting a Jan. 10 trial.

Like Young, Smith also had confessed to police, but that is not the case with Johnson.

Guymon concedes it will be "an uphill battle" to prove Johnson's guilt, but once that is achieved he predicted it will be "a downhill ride to the death penalty."

While Young and Smith both named Johnson as the gunman who stood over each duct-taped victim and fired single bullets into their heads, their confessions cannot be used against the final defendant and neither has been willing to be a prosecution witness.

Young had smiled as he was brought into the courtroom for Thursday's verdict -- wearing the stun belt and arm restraints that have been part of his attire since he became violent and overturned a table during jury selection -- but he became deadly serious when the verdicts were read.

Even when it was clear he was not going to get the death penalty, the man who had described himself to corrections officers as the "most notorious inmate in the history of Nevada," displayed little emotion.

Barring a reversal of his conviction on appeal, Young knew the he would be spending the rest of his life behind prison walls.

At his trial, Young was shown to have been the one who stood guard, casually sipping a beer, while the others ransacked the house near Tropicana Avenue and Nellis Boulevard expecting to find $6,000 in cash and a large quantity of drugs.

In the confessions it was noted that only about $200, a VCR, a video game system and a few pills were located.

Before returning to the county courthouse Thursday, jurors spent 17 hours over three days trying to agree on the sentence and their vote before going home Wednesday night was 9 to 3.

The compromise occurred during less than two hours of deliberations Thursday morning.

It took the same jury five hours of deliberations to convict Young of first-degree murder, despite his confession and a state law that says all persons involved in a robbery where a murder occurs are equally guilty of murder.

Beyond that, the jury was shown that Young had advocated the murders of the four young victims to keep them from being witnesses, and also wanted the their two pit bull puppies killed.

In an unsworn statement to the jury last week, Young asked for leniency and said his whole life shouldn't be judged on "three weeks on the wild side."

That period not only involved the quadruple murder, but also his involvement in disposing of a body from another murder, his shooting at two people in a hotel-casino who owed him money from a drug deal and his pulling a pistol on a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper.

Guymon said it wasn't three weeks, but three years -- dating back to a 1996 incident during which Young and some friends caned a couple of teenage boys to the ground in a supermarket.