Husband ordered to give evidence in case

A judge ordered Jason Young, the husband of a pregnant woman found slain in her Wake County home last week, to provide investigators with fingerprints, blood samples or other forms of material evidence, said Colon Willoughby, Wake County’s District Attorney.

Michelle Marie Young, 29, was found dead Friday afternoon, killed from blunt force trauma in her home at 5108 Birchleaf Drive in the Enchanted Oaks neighborhood, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office has said. Her 2-year-old daughter, Cassidy, was in the home at the time, but was unharmed. Jason Young told investigators he was in Brevard in the western part of the state visiting family when her body was found.

Young, 32, is named as a suspect on the order, however, he was not required to make a statement, nor was he subject to interrogation, according to Willoughby. Detectives had already seized his car as part of their investigation.

Young has not been charged with anything. A call to his attorney for comment was not returned Wednesday afternoon.

Young went with his attorney to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office on South Salisbury Avenue late Wednesday morning, Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said.

“He complied with the order and went to the City-County Bureau of Identification,” said Phyllis Stephens, the sheriff's office spokeswoman. CCBI, located in the same building as the sheriff’s office, conducts crime scene investigation and processes fingerprints and blood samples for various law enforcement agencies in the county.

According to the North Carolina general statutes, sheriff’s investigators can use a nontestimonial order to obtain an array of material evidence including fingerprints, palm prints, footprints, blood specimens, hair samples, voice samples and photographs.

Willoughby said the order is less intrusive procedure than a search warrant that requires a lower standard of proof.

“A search warrant requires probable cause, but with a nontestimonial order you are only required to have reasonable suspicion to suspect some person,” Willoughby said Wednesday.

Law investigators can only obtain the order for offenses that are punishable by imprisonment for more than one year. “We do this frequently,” Willoughby said. “It’s not unusual for us to get an nontestimonial identification order.”