Timeline becomes focus in new murder trial for Jason Young

RALEIGH -- Jason Young waited 1,693 days to provide an account of his whereabouts in the hours before and after his pregnant wife was found bludgeoned to death.

Assistant District Attorney Becky Holt stressed that number in her opening statement Monday, the first day of testimony in the retrial of Young.

Why, Holt asked, would a man whose wife had been bludgeoned, receiving at least 30 blows, not consult law enforcement officers once about the progress of their investigation?

Why, Holt asked, would he not sit for a deposition in a custody battle over his toddler daughter and then cede the parenting of his only child to his in-laws?

Why, Holt further posed, would a man who claimed to have stepped outside a Virginia hotel to smoke a cigar shortly before midnight, propping open doors so he wouldn't have to use his keycard, not offer such an account to law enforcement officers shortly after his wife's body was found?

It was not until June 22 of last year - four years, seven months and 19 days after his wife was found - that Young told a jury he was on a business trip in Virginia the day his wife's bloody body was discovered on the floor of their master bedroom. He told them he went out to smoke a cigar, went back into his room alone and then rose early on Nov. 3 to make business calls.

If Young did nothing more than what he said, Holt asked, why did he wait so long to give his account? "How in any way could that be incriminating?" she said.

Mike Klinkosum, one of the defense attorneys representing Young, also called attention to a timeline, but for different reasons.

In his opening statement, Klinkosum told the eight women and four men on the jury that law enforcement officers focused on Young early as a primary suspect, and in doing so did not chase leads and evidence that did not fit into that theory.

Jason Young, though encouraged by friends on Nov. 3, 2006, to get a lawyer before talking with police because of questions investigators were asking, was not arrested until December 2009.

"Police focused on him like a laser," Klinkosum said.

Then, Klinkosum added, "what could be described as 'Internet vigilantes' " picked up the mantle, waiting for Young with cameras outside his mother's house in Brevard, where he moved after his wife's death, then posting those photographs and commentary to the Web.

In the first trial, Klinkosum said, prosecutors presented a circumstantial case.

Though blood soaked the bed sheets, the floor and walls of the Youngs' master bedroom and upstairs hall, and Michelle Young was beaten so brutally that teeth were found outside her mouth, law enforcement officers did not find any bruises or blood on Jason Young or in his car within hours of the gruesome discovery.

"Ladies and gentleman," Klinkosum said, "Jason Young did not murder his wife and his unborn child. This case has never been solved."

When Young, 37, was tried eight months ago before a jury of seven women and five men, two-thirds of the panel was set on acquittal and the other third was set on a guilty verdict. Judge Donald Stephens declared a mistrial.

How jury differs

This time, the jury is made up of eight women and four men. There are two women and two men who will serve as alternate jurors, ready to step in if any of the panel of 12 cannot serve through the deliberation process.

Before the prosecution and defense team gave opening statements in a trial expected to last a month, Judge Donald Stephens urged the men and women to avoid using social media during the weeks of the trial.

Stephens dismissed two men before the impaneling. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed the men would be suitable for the jury, but they were released before that happened.

One man was heard in a Garner restaurant discussing the case. The other had posted to The Wolfpack Web, an unofficial N.C. State University message board, that he and another woman in the jury pool would "be the worst jurors ever."

Stephens told the man, upon dismissing him, that Wake County needed the "best jurors ever."

"Please do not post, please do not tweet," Stephens told the jury.

After the lunch break, Stephens took his instructions a step further, telling the jurors not to have alcoholic drinks during their breaks. That came after a person in the jury pool had posted the Wolfpack Web message board "3 margaritas later I am ready not to get selected."

Sister is first witness

Meredith Fisher, Michelle Young's sister, was the first witness called.

She dabbed at tears off and on as she described her sister's marriage, the birth of her niece, Cassidy, the toddler who was found near her mother's body, and other family events. She and her family pulled out tissues as prosecutors played her taped conversation with emergency dispatchers as she summoned help to the Young's house.

Prosecutors contend Jason Young, a philandering free-spirit who could be immature and irresponsible, killed his wife as their marriage crumbled. His wife was pregnant, he was involved with another woman and his mother-in-law was making plans to move in to help with child care.

Prosecutors contend Young drove to a Hampton Inn in Hillsville, Va., on Nov. 2, 2006, checked in late that night, changed clothes and then left the hotel, an exit recorded on a security camera in the lobby close to midnight. They argued he headed back to Raleigh, bludgeoned his wife to death, then returned to Virginia.

"It was a brutal personal beating," Holt said.

Defense lawyers reminded jurors that they are being asked to decide whether Young committed a murder, not whether he had flaws in his character.

"You're going to hear he acted like an obnoxious jerk," Klinkosum said. "It was not a good marriage, there's no question it was not a good marriage. He acted like a jerk. ...But what you've got to remember ladies and gentleman is we don't convict people of murder when they've acted like jerks."

Klinkosum argued that Young would not have had time to do what prosecutors contend. He urged them to listen to facts, not rule on emotions.

Of the prosecution's theory, Klinkosum said: "It doesn't make sense. This puzzle that the prosecution talks about, Jason does not fit into it."