Harlan Kirgan
Chad Young, who was convicted of murdering his father, mother and brother in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison, is to be released from prison in November 2020.
Young, who was 17 years old when the murders occurred southeast of Eunice, in November 1988, was in court Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to three manslaughter charges.
His original sentence, which also was a plea bargain, was vacated in January.
About 50 relatives of the slain family cried and reacted negatively when the plea bargain was announced.
The plea bargain was said to be made in accordance with U.S. Supreme Court rulings concerning the sentencing of person who committed crimes while they were under 18 years old.
The case was presided over by 27th Judicial Court Judge James Doherty.
Edward Lopez, district public defender, represented Young.
Glenn Marcantel represented the district attorney’s office.
Doherty called Young’s crime heinous, but agreed to the plea bargain Lopez said took five years to reach.
Young has been at held the Angola prison for most of the 25 years he has been in state custody. He has been in the Wade Correctional Center in Homer for about the past three years, Lopez said.
Young appeared to cry as several family members gave victim statements, but he did not address them.
Young was clad in a blue shirt with “Hunt” on the back, blue jeans, tennis shoes and shackles at Tuesday’s hearing.
The crowd seemed to gasp when Young, 46, entered the courtroom and then fell silent as if to digest the vision of person last seen as a 17-year-old Eunice High School senior and family member now a convict with 29 years behind bars.
Lopez said Young had not presented a discipline problem while in prison.
“No fights, no arguments, no nothing in 29 years,” Lopez said.
Questioned by Doherty, Young said he had earned a GED while in prison.
Doherty had ruled in January that Young’s life sentence without parole was illegal based on U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
In 1992, Young accepted a plea bargain in the deaths of his father, Lucas Young, 42; his mother, Rebecca Young, 38; and his brother, Chris, 15.
Young stabbed his mother and brother and shot his father Tuesday, Nov. 29, at their split level house near the Savoy Catholic Church off U.S. 190.
Young then set the house on fire. A call was reportedly made from the house at 8:30 p.m.
“Chief Tony Fuselier said that the caller told the police dispatcher that he needed help because of a family disturbance and mentioned a shooting,” according to a Eunice News report. “The dispatcher reportedly could hear shots fired in the background and the phone suddenly went dead.”
Young was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson that week. On Dec. 14, a grand jury indicted him.
Nearly three decades after the crime, the emotions remains raw for family members.
Katie Suire, Young’s first cousin, said the new sentence is unfair to the family and the victims.
“Shame on our DA’s office for joining this motion,” she said.
Stephanie Cortez, sister of Lucas Young, said, “Something like that doesn’t need to walk the grounds of Louisiana except in prison.”
Cortez, who said she is blind, said she would not feel safe if is Young is released.
Diana Castille said she dated Chris Young and was on the phone with Chad Young the night of the murders.
“He was so calm,” she said of Chad Young, but she said she could hear the mother screaming.
“I can’t see Chad being allowed to live his life when he took the (lives) three others,” she siad.
Susan Huval, sister of Rebecca Young, said, “He needs to stay where he is at for our safety.”
Priscilla Doucet, also a sister of Rebecca Young, said Chad Young has no remorse for the murders.
“The three that are gone can’t stand here,” she said.
Family members vowed to fight the new sentence, but defense attorney Lopez said the case is over.
“They can quote fight all they want. It is done. The fat lady has sung,” he said.
Jack Burson, of Eunice, who was an assistant district attorney and prosecuted the Chad Young case, said the original plea was made because the family had suffered enough and they “100 suggested this was the thing to do.”
Burson said if there had been a death penalty sentence Young possibly would remain on death row.
“I frankly don’t like the Supreme Court handing down the decision they did and putting all these old cases up for review without giving you one, two, three standards of how to address the horrific nature of a crime like this,” Burson said.
“But I think if there was ever a case where the full sentence was justified this is it,” he said.
“I have no problem saying I think the original result was fair,” he said of the three life sentences.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that no defendant under the age of 18 can be sentenced to a mandatory punishment of life without the benefit of parole.
Lopez said Chad Young is one of about 300 prisoners serving life sentences in Louisiana from crimes they committed as juveniles.
Despite the lack of guidelines from the U.S. Supreme Court, judges to have discretion in sentencing and made exceptions in crimes deemed heinous.
Huval said in a statement to the news media, “This has nothing to do with the Supreme Court ruling. The family has been told numerous things as a reason for his reduction is sentence. It’s the parole board’s fault they want him out too, he reads the Bible now, he’s better, now the state is being blamed because they want a reduction in incarceration, prisons are too crowded.
“The state it seems has assured the citizens that prison reform does not include releasing these types of violent criminals back into society. Is this the case or are empty cots coming at the risk of citizens lives.”
District Attorney Earl Taylor, who did not attend Tuesday’s hearing, also issued a statement, which follows.
“The United States Supreme Court’s decisions in the Miller and Montgomery cases held that sentences wherein offenders who were under 18 years old at the time of the offense were given life sentences without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional.
“Those rulings mean that Chad Young’s case, which our office had previously thought was final, had to be revisited.
“Once the Court’s decision forced me to address the Chad Young case, my goal was to ensure the maximum sentence that would be safe from:
“1. Young being immediately released after a parole hearing.
“2. Young’s conviction being overturned in a new trial.
“3. Young’s conviction being overturned on appeal.
“The fact that Young’s original sentence resulted from a plea agreement, rather than a jury verdict, is relevant to my analysis, and adds a legal component to the case that has not yet been fully tested in court and which Young might use to his benefit.
“Young’s plea today ensures that he will not be released immediately, but that he will instead serve 32 years in prison for the terrible crimes he committed.
“Young’s plea brings finality and certainty and assures the maximum sentence that my office feels can be guaranteed under the facts of this case.”