A Virginia mother who drugged her daughters with melatonin gum before killing them five years ago was sentenced to 78 years in prison on Friday.
Veronica Youngblood, 38, was sentenced to life after the former sex worker was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of using a firearm in March.
Youngblood shot his daughters Sharon Castro, 15, and Brooklynn Youngblood, 5, in their bed in a McLean apartment after giving them melatonin gum in August 2018.
Brooklynn, who died at the scene, was shot once in the head while Sharon was hit once in the back and once in the chest and later died in hospital.
The teenager was able to call 911 after the shooting to inform dispatchers that his mother had pulled the trigger.
Jurors who listened to Sharon’s calls during the two-week trial were so traumatized by her that they asked if they could receive therapy.
Veronica Youngblood, 38, was sentenced to 78 years in prison for drugging and shooting to death her daughters Sharon Castro, 15, and Brooklynn Youngblood, 5, in their bed in 2018. Fairfax County Circuit Court
Youngblood told detectives that he planned to kill them and himself following a protracted custody dispute.
As her teenage daughter lay dying, she called her ex-husband, Ron Youngblood, to tell him he hated her and was going to shoot their children. He originally planned to move to Missouri with the girls, but agreed to take Brooklynn at his ex’s behest.
Youngblood bought the gun he used to kill his daughter nine days before the disturbing murder.
The mother-of-two, who grew up in Argentina, called herself a “good mother” at her sentencing, saying “something has happened” in her brain.
Youngblood shot his 15-year-old daughter Sharon Castro once in the back and once in the chest. Fairfax County Circuit Court
“I don’t know how to explain it, something exploded in my mind,” he said through a translator during a 30-minute speech about his daughters and the struggles he faced raising them.
Youngblood presented an insanity defense at trial, claiming he heard voices, but it was rejected.
The jury recommended 78 years in prison after hearing testimony during sentencing that the killer’s mother grew up in poverty, was physically and sexually abused as a child and turned to sex work as a teenager to support her older daughter.
Defense attorneys asked for both sentences to run concurrently, which would have reduced the sentence from 78 years to 42 years, which Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows rejected.
“Mothers and fathers have many responsibilities, but none is heavier than keeping their children safe. Unfortunately, their mother became the instrument of their death,” he said.
With Postal wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
