Published: February 06, 2007 03:56 pm      

Young found guilty of double-murder

After less than two hours of deliberation, members of a jury found 28-year-old Casey Young guilty of stabbing to death his grandmother, Nancy Young, and her boyfriend, Will Stone.

Young only raised his eyebrows slightly as he listened to Floyd County Circuit Court Judge J. Terrence Cody read the jury's verdicts. While being handcuffed and led away, Young forcefully told his attorney, Andrew Adams, not to appeal the decision.

"I'm done." he told Adams. "I'm not coming back to court."

When asked by a member of the media how he felt about the verdict, Young only said he was "happy."

Adams was uncertain as to whether or not there would, in fact, be an appeal, and said since Young was "upset" about the guilty verdict, they would need to discuss it at a less emotional time. Adams said he was disappointed at the trial's outcome, but that he thought "the case went very well from start to finish."

He said he was not surprised the jury took so little time in making its decision because "in cases like this — it usually —happens pretty quickly one way or the other."

At a press conference following the reading of the verdict, Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said Nancy Young's family members — including her four sisters who were in attendance all five days of the trial — were "glad, grateful, appreciative and relieved."

"They can now close this chapter of their lives," Henderson said.

The evidence against Casey Young was "overwhelming," Henderson said, but he was not completely confident that the jury would return a guilty verdict.

"I've seen too many cases where the jury took a turn I didn't understand," Henderson said. "Until that verdict was opened and read, I didn't relax."

Henderson went on to call the 14 jury members in this case "very attentive."

Judge Cody scheduled Young’s sentencing for March 19. He faces a maximum of 65 years in prison for each count of murder, and while Henderson wouldn't comment on the number of years he would ask for, he said he would ask that they run consecutively.

"I don't think he should get a two-for-one deal here," Henderson said.

As a part of the presentencing investigation, Henderson said he would "fully explore" two previous criminal charges against Young.

Wayne Kessinger, Floyd County's former chief investigator, said both were battery charges, one of which involved a knife.

"We'll lay all that out in March," Henderson said.