Murders of the Castro and Youngblood children
On 5 August 2018, Veronica Youngblood murdered her daughters Sharon Castro and Brooklyn Youngblood, aged 15 and 5 respectively in their apartment in McLean, Virginia. She was sentenced to 78 years in prison.[1][2]
Veronica Youngblood
Veronica Youngblood grew up in poverty in
Background
Youngblood and her husband, Ron Youngblood were set to move to move to Missouri, but Veronica Youngblood changed her mind and decided to stay in Virginia. The husband moved with his biological daughter, Brooklyn, after a judge decided that she could move with him.[5] Youngblood had a custody dispute with her ex-husband, which he had won.[3]
Timeline
Youngblood bought the handgun used in the killings nine days before the killings.[1][4]
Killings
The murders took place on August 5, 2018.[5] Youngblood gave the children sleeping pill gummies, and then shot them in their bed.[1][5] Brooklyn was shot in the head and Sharon was shot in her chest and back. Brooklyn died at the scene.[5] After the shooting, Sharon called 911 to tell dispatchers that she had been shot,[1] and that the mother was the shooter.[5] When Brooklyn was lying down as she was dying, Youngblood called the husband to tell him that she hated him and had shot the children. Sharon later died in hospital.[5] The mother was arrested in August 2018.[1]
Investigations
Youngblood told detectives that the incident was due to a long custody dispute, and that she intended to kill both herself and the children.[1] She said that she deserved the death penalty, which had been abolished in Virginia in 2021.[3]
Trial
The trial took two weeks.[4] Youngblood pleaded insanity, claiming that she heard voices. This was rejected.[1][5] After hearing Sharon's 911 call, which included the phrases "I don't want to die", call, jurors requested trauma therapy.[1][3] Youngblood was described by Fairfax County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kelsey Gill as "malicious, selfish and [a] deliberate killer", and saying that the case "goes well beyond merely having a mental illness. This goes well beyond depression. This goes well beyond PTSD. This goes well beyond being suicidal." She was convicted on March 26, 2023, of two counts of murder, and two counts of the use of firearms to commit murder.[4][3] Prosecutors said that the killing the children was revenge to her ex-husband.[4] The jurors took a day to name her guilty.[4]
Sentence
Youngblood was sentenced to 78 years in prison.[1] The defence requested that instead of the sentences being consecutive, they be concurrent. This would have reduced the sentence from 78 to 48 years. Judge Randy Bellows said that there was no reason to reduce it, and that under state law, he had no ability to decrease it. He said "Mothers and fathers have many responsibilities, but none is more grave than keeping their children safe ... Tragically, their mother became the instrument of their death."[1]
Before the sentence, Youngblood spent half an hour talking about the difficulties she had raising her children.[1][2] She said in Spanish that she had been a good mother and she was unsure on what happened, saying "Something exploded in my mind."[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "US mother gets 78 years for killing daughters, aged 5 and 15". 1 News. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ a b "Mother gets 78-year prison term for killing daughters, 15 and 5, in Virginia". AP News. 2023-09-22. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ a b c d e f Mayer, Chloe (2023-03-27). "Who is Veronica Youngblood? Mother facing life for murdering her daughters". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ a b c d e f "Virginia woman convicted of killing 2 young daughters in revenge plot". 2023-03-26. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Veronica Youngblood's ex says she used slain daughters as leverage". 2023-09-23. Retrieved 2023-09-24.