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Terrell YOUNG

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Kidnapping - Robbery
Number of victims: 4
Date of murders: August 14, 1998
Date of birth: 1979
Victims profile: Tracey Gorringe, 20; Peter Talamantez, 20; Matthew Mowen, 19, and Jeffrey Biddle, 19
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Status: Four sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole, 2006
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jury Sentences Terrell Young to Life

By Chris Saldaņa - Klas-Tv.com

June 8, 2006

A jury has recommended four sentences of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years for Terrell Young.

Young was convicted of killing 20-year-old Tracey Gorringe, 20-year-old Peter Talamantez, 19-year-old Matthew Mowen and 19-year-old Jeffrey Biddle.  The murders happened 8 years ago and the case continued through two retrials of two different defendants.

The most recent trial was interrupted several times by the disruptive behavior of Terrell Young delaying the trial for weeks.

The possibility of parole after 40 years is what has the families of his victims upset. And in typical Terrell Young style, Wednesday's punishment phase was far from quiet.

Ten correction officers were on hand ready for Terrell Young's punishment to be read. Young was quiet for the most part until his verdict was about to be read. Refusing to stand up, correction officers were forced to make him stand and listen.

The jury handed down four counts of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. His victims' families wanted more.

Jennifer Mowen said, "I'm completely in shock right now. He's killed four people. He's been convicted twice now and they're going to give him parole." 

Before the verdict was read, Jennifer Mowen, who's brother was killed in the crime Young was involved in, said she and her family were confident he'd get life in prison without parole.

"I had no concern. My concern was them finding him guilty. Once they found him guilty my concern was that they'd give him life without parole. I had no doubt," Mowen said.

Doubt that in the end the jury saw different.

Mowen continued, "I hope they realize what they did. I thank them for their time. I know it's not easy, but it should not have been that lenient of a sentence.

Young will be sentence on July 12th. The death penalty was not an offer in this case.

There were two other accomplices in this crime. Sikia Smith was sentenced to life in prison. Donte Johnson also won a retrial but in the end that jury sentenced him to death.

 
 

QUADRUPLE SLAYINGS: New trial ordered in '98 killings

State Supreme Court says judge ignored suspect's conflict with attorneys

By Glenn Puitt - Las Vegas Review-Journal

Friday, December 24, 2004

Victims' families reacted with dismay Thursday to a Nevada Supreme Court decision that granted a new trial to a man convicted of killing four young men in 1998.

The justices ruled that District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski did not adequately probe an ongoing conflict between Terrell Young and his court-appointed attorneys, Lew Wolfbrandt and Marty Hastings.

"I think the people at the Supreme Court should be randomly checked for drugs, because this was a heinous crime," said Juanita Aguilar, 47, the mother of victim Peter Talamantez, 17. "Four boys were killed, and this goes on and on for the families when these kinds of things happen."

David Mowen, father of 19-year-old victim Matthew Mowen, lamented that his family will have to endure another trial.

"It's been 2,323 days and it just never seems to end," Mowen said. "I'm very upset about it, very angry with it. ... I just don't want to go through another trial again. It's been over six years, and I haven't had an opportunity to really heal yet."

On appeal, Young contended his attorneys rarely visited him in jail and did not conduct an adequate investigation before his trial.

In their ruling, the justices said Pavlikowski should have more vigorously inquired about the differences between Young and his lawyers.

"People have a fundamental right to a fair trial, and in this case, he was denied that right," Young's appellate attorney, Karen Connolly, said Thursday.

In 1999, Young was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in the deaths of Mowen, Talamantez, Jeffrey Biddle, 19, and Tracey Gorringe, 20.

The four were bound with duct tape and shot in the head during a robbery at an east Las Vegas home in August 1998.

Authorities said the robbers had hoped to find large amounts of money and drugs. Instead, they netted less than $300, a videocassette recorder, a Nintendo game player and a pager.

Young, now 25, was one of three men charged in the slayings. Sikia Smith is serving life in prison.

Triggerman Donte Johnson was sentenced to death by a three-judge panel, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned that sentence in December 2002 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled juries should make such decisions. He is awaiting resentencing.

Young's September 1999 trial was filled with bizarre, sometimes violent, developments.

During jury selection, Young cleared the defense table of all documents, overturned the prosecution table and tossed a chair at the jury box.

He was fitted with a stun belt when he returned to court. He then spat on his attorneys and was subdued by a jolt of electricity.

Two weeks later, as the jury forewoman read the guilty verdicts, Young berated her after a nervous smile played across her face. "What's so funny about it?" he demanded, prompting the woman to cry so hard she couldn't continue for about a minute.

After court was adjourned that day, the defendant's mother, Willena "Maria" Warren, attacked Wolfbrandt inside the courtroom, aiming blows at his face and back while screaming curse words.

When he was returned to the Clark County Detention Center that same day, Young waited until his stun belt was removed, then attacked a guard. When another guard came to the rescue nearly a minute later, he found Young straddling the officer and pounding his face with both hands.

Jurors decided not to sentence Young to death, instead opting for a sentence of life without possibility of parole.

At a subsequent hearing in which that sentence was formally imposed, Young smiled as the victims' families described their agony.

Given a chance to speak, Young said his smiles were an attempt to mask his own pain.

Young's displeasure with his attorneys was apparent well before he spat on them.

According to the Supreme Court ruling, Young complained to Pavlikowski about his attorneys on five occasions. Twice, he filed motions asking that they be replaced.

The justices said Pavlikowski should have made a more detailed inquiry into Young's complaints.

"For example, the district court failed to inquire in any depth about Young's complaints regarding a lack of communication, Wolfbrandt's failure to file any pretrial motions, Wolfbrandt's failure to contact any witnesses, and more importantly, why Wolfbrandt had violated the district court's order to visit Young weekly," according to the ruling.

Wolfbrandt declined comment Thursday.

At trial, he told Pavlikowski he filed the motions he considered meritorious and spoke to Young's family and friends. He acknowledged he did not visit the capital murder defendant each week, but said the visits he did make bore fruit.

The Supreme Court's decision to grant Young a new trial was the latest in a series of rulings overturning high-profile convictions or death sentences.

On Wednesday, the court reversed the 1996 murder conviction of James Meegan, sentenced to life in prison for the death of his 10-month-old daughter, Francine. The court said a faulty jury instruction was given in the case.

"The faulty instruction resulted in a verdict that didn't take into consideration the intent of the alleged crime or the intent of the alleged perpetrator," said Meegan's appellate attorney, Chris Oram.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens said he knows of six death penalty sentences in which the penalties recently were sent back to District Court by the Supreme Court for rehearing.

"They are coming back faster than we can seem to get them back in for new trials," Owens said.

District Attorney David Roger said: "The Supreme Court rulings tend to go in cycles. At the present time, we are starting to see a lot of reversals, but we are not going to back down. We will retry these cases and make sure justice is served.

"These are pretty major cases which take up a lot of resources, but we will bare down and retry these cases, assuming our witnesses are still around."

Albert Talamantez, father of Peter Talamantez, said he was upset by the justices' decision to grant Young a new trial. "I have to go through it all over again," he said.

Despite his frustration with the ruling, David Mowen, the father of Matthew Mowen, predicted Young will never be a free man.

"I surely don't have a concern about his beating the charges," Mowen said. "Yeah, it could happen, but I don't see a possibility of that happening."

 
 

State v. Terrell Young

27th July 2006

Judge Nancy Saitta sentenced Terrell Young this morning to Life in Prison Without the Possibility of Parole for the kidnapping of four young men in 1998. Young was convicted by a jury this past June of kidnapping and murdering 20-year-old Tracey Gorringe, 20-year-old Peter Talamantez, 19-year-old Matthew Mowen and 19-year-old Jeffrey Biddle.

Judge Saitta sentenced Terrell to Life in Prison for the kidnappings of Gorringe, Talamantez, Mowen and Biddle. Following the penalty phase for Young in June, a jury recommended that he receive Life With the Possibility of Parole after 40 years for the murders.

Judge Saitta also sentenced Young this morning on the remaining 6 counts to sentences totaling 40 to 180 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections to be served consecutive to the life sentences.

Count 1. 40/180 Months Nevada Department of Corrections (NDC)
Count 2. 26/120 Months NDC (Consecutive to Ct. 1)
Count 3. 40/180 Months NDC plus equal and Consecutive 40/180 Months NDC
(Consecutive to Ct. 2)
Count 4. 40/180 Months NDC plus equal and Consecutive 40/180 Months NDC
(Consecutive to Ct. 3)
Count 5. 40/180 Months NDC plus equal and Consecutive 40/180 Months NDC
(Consecutive to Ct. 4)
Count 6. 40/180 Months NDC plus equal and Consecutive 40/180 Months NDC
(Consecutive to Ct. 5)
Count 7. Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole plus equal and Consecutive
Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole
(Consecutive to Ct. 6)
Count 8. Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole plus equal and Consecutive Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole
(Consecutive to Ct. 7)
Count 9. Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole plus equal and Consecutive Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole
(Consecutive to Ct. 8 )
Count 10. Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole plus equal and Consecutive Life WITHOUT the possibility of Parole
(Consecutive to Ct. 9 )
Count 11. 20 yrs/Life plus equal and Consecutive 20 yrs/Life
Count 12. 20 yrs/Life plus equal and Consecutive 20 yrs/Life
(Consecutive to Ct. 11)
Count 13. 20 yrs/Life plus equal and Consecutive 20 yrs/Life
(Consecutive to Ct. 12)
Count 14. 20 yrs/Life plus equal and Consecutive 20 yrs/Life
(Consecutive to Ct. 13)

Cts. 11-14 to run Consecutive to Cts. 1-10
2,885 Days Credit for Time Served

 
 


Terrell Young

 

 

 
 
 
 
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