RALEIGH -- There were tears, acknowledgments of infidelities and accusations of domestic violence from the women Wake County prosecutors called Thursday in the retrial of Jason Young.
Though the main themes from Young's former fiancée and two paramours were on key to their testimony in his first trial, there also were differences from eight months ago.
Genevieve Cargol, an N.C. State University graduate who was engaged to Young in 1999, offered a more focused account of the volatility and violence in her relationship with the man accused of bludgeoning his wife to death.
Caroll Anne Sowerby, a woman with whom Young had sex before his wife's death, was an emotional witness again, offering halting and tearful testimony. But she offered fewer details of her visit with Young in October 2006 - a trip to his home that included several days while his wife was away.
Michelle Money, a former sorority sister of Michelle Young, acknowledged being involved in an extramarital affair with Jason Young shortly before his wife's death, but their relationship was more tightly focused.
The testimony of the women in his life - each wearing a black outfit - came after prosecutors spent several days introducing forensic evidence.
Prosecutors contend Jason Young bludgeoned his wife to death in their home on Nov. 3, 2006, as his marriage crumbled.
The Youngs were married in October 2003 when Michelle Young was pregnant with Cassidy, their only child. Michelle Young was almost 20 weeks pregnant when she was found face down between the bed and her husband's closet in the master bedroom. Blood was on the bed, on the floor and the walls. She was beaten so forcefully that teeth were knocked out of her mouth.
Jason Young testified in the first trial, which ended with a jury hung 8-4 for acquittal. He gave adamant "no's" each time he was asked whether he killed his wife or had anything to do with her death.
A 'different person'
Michelle and Jason Young argued often, according to testimony last week. But there were no claims of physical violence during the retrial until Thursday, when Cargol described a roller-coaster relationship that included an incident when Young smashed his hand into a windshield and a struggle inside a hotel room.
Cargol said she and Young were in Grapevine, Texas, for a wedding in 1999 when they argued over the amount of beer he drank at lunch, going one for one with a buddy.
The argument escalated into a physical fight, she said. He threw her from bed to bed in the hotel room, jumped on her with all his weight and pulled her arms back so far that she worried they might pop out of their sockets.
He demanded that she give back the engagement ring he had given her, but Cargol said it was too small and difficult to slide off her finger. Young pulled the ring so hard, she said, that it cut her finger.
"He grabbed me by the arms and threw me down on the bed with such force that it stunned me," Cargol said. "He grabbed my arm so tightly that it left bruises.
"The fight was so scary, not just because of the violent part," Cargol added. "His eyes were completely empty and deserted and glazed over. It was like he wasn't seeing me, and I wasn't seeing him. I felt like he was a completely different person."
The two broke off their engagement not long after the incident, but continued to see each other off and on in the ensuing months. She eventually moved away, but that was not her last contact with Young.
"I was really heart-broken," Cargol said. "I really thought he was my soul-mate."
After a roller-coaster relationship, Cargol said, some of her friends were upset with her for breaking it off with Young. "Even the people who knew about the violence, they just didn't understand," Cargol said. "Everybody loved Jason."
Defense attorneys contend the prosecution's theory of how Michelle Young was killed does not make sense. They argue that Jason Young was in Virginia shortly before midnight on Nov. 2, 2006, and would not have had time to drive back to his home, bludgeon his wife, then return for business the next day without tracking blood into his Ford Explorer or incurring injuries in such an attack.
'It was normal Jason'
Money acknowledged having an intimate weekend with Young in October 2006. She said the two talked afterward and decided their sexual relationship would not continue.
But on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, there were numerous phone calls between the two. Money said she and Young even talked about what kind of gift he would get for his wife to celebrate their third wedding anniversary.
Defense attorneys asked her about the conversations she had by phone with Jason Young shortly before midnight on Nov. 2 and on the morning of Nov. 3.
"It was normal Jason," she testified.
Though Cargol cut off contact with Jason Young after several uncomfortable encounters with him long after their break-up, Sowerby and Money talked with him after his wife's death.
Sowerby met the defendant when he was an instructor at a Brevard summer camp and she was a camper. They kayaked together, became friends, and continued their friendship for years after that, going kayaking with a group. After she moved out of state for college - first to Georgia and then Montana - they kept up with each other and got together on occasion when they were in the same state.
Each married, Sowerby in April 2003 and the Youngs in October 2003.
In October 2006, Sowerby contacted Young about a class she planned to attend in Raleigh. She found out either shortly before her visit or right after arriving that Michelle Young was traveling out of town on business the first day or two while she was there.
'He needed friends'
Sowerby spent several nights at his house, and Jason Young talked a lot about his joy in being a father. They went out to dinner, and they had drinks at his home.
One night, Sowerby said, the two had sex on the couch.
She also described an incident when he took her wedding ring and pretended to swallow it, then waiting a day to give it back to her.
"That was a typical thing he would do," Sowerby said. "He was trying to play a joke."
Sowerby said she and her family invited Jason Young to spend several days with them after Michelle Young was killed.
He came out for a visit. They all spent several days on a river, and Jason Young returned home.
"We felt bad about what he had lost and thought he needed friends," Sowerby said.
