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Should Curtis Young live or die? Jury to decide
Curtis Young Guilty
Gallery
YOUNGSTOWN — A jury today found Curtis Young guilty of all aggravated murder counts, and all firearm and death penalty specifications, in the death of his ex-girlfriend, Helen Moore, 29, of Cassius Street, her nearly full-term unborn child, and her 8-year-old son, Ceonei.
‘Four lives have been destroyed,’ the victim’s aunt said after the guilty verdicts.
YOUNGSTOWN — Members of Helen Moore’s family hope the capital murder trial of Curtis Young sends a message that people need to be careful of the choices they make.
They expressed their views Friday, immediately after a nine-woman, three-man jury found Young guilty as charged on all counts of aggravated murder and all firearm and death-penalty specifications.
Young, 26, of North Center Street, was convicted in the July 31, 2007, shooting deaths of Moore, 29, of Cassius Street, who was his ex-girlfriend; her nearly full-term fetus; and her 8-year-old son, Ceonei.
The jurors will return to the Mahoning County Courthouse at 9 a.m. Wednesday for the penalty determination phase, at which they’ll hear testimony about whether Young should live or die before they recommend whether he should be sentenced to a life prison term or death.
The trial is before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
“We just hope that, in the future, people will think more about their actions because there are no winners in this situation,’’ said Helen Moore’s aunt, Deborah Chattman of Warren.
“That’s four lives that have been destroyed,” she said, referring to the three deaths and the life prison term or death sentence that awaits Young. The jurors’ sentence recommendation options will be 25 years to life in prison, 30-to-life, life without parole or death.
The sentence will then be up to the judge, but the judge can’t impose a death sentence if the jurors recommend life.
“Hopefully, other people who are in domestic-violence situations will see this, and they will be able to make good decisions,” said Chattman, a caseworker at the Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services.
“They both made bad decisions, and look how it’s affected all of us — his family and our family,” Mary Moore said of her sister, Helen Moore, and Young.
Mary Moore was in constant cellular phone contact with a 911 dispatcher during the argument between Young and his ex-girlfriend that preceded the shooting.
During the trial, Judge Sweeney read to jurors a statement agreed to by the prosecuting and defense lawyers and Young concerning the on-and-off, six-year relationship between Young and Helen Moore.
It was a verbally and physically “abusive and tumultuous” relationship that included “domestic violence by and between both parties,” the statement said.
The vehicular pursuit that went from Helen Moore’s home to Young’s home consisted of separate cars driven by Helen and Mary Moore, both with children in them, and Young.
In front of his home, Young fired a single .38-caliber bullet that passed through Helen Moore’s neck and lodged in the head of Ceonei, who was her front-seat passenger, before the car she was driving left the road and overturned onto its passenger side.
Members of the victims’ family differed on the appropriate penalty for Young.
“I feel he deserves the death penalty,” said Wendelin Byrd of Youngstown, a first cousin of Helen Moore. “I don’t feel sorry for him. ... He took somebody special from my family,” she added.
“I don’t want him to die for that. I would rather have him just feel real bad about it,” said Mary Moore. She added that she had hoped Young would enter into a plea agreement with the prosecution, rather than go to trial.
“When we make mistakes, we have to pay for them, but, once that person is gone, you can’t put them back,” she observed.
“Whatever happens with him, it’s not going to bring her back. She’s gone. I’ll leave that up to the jury,” said Helen Moore’s aunt, Arvella Smith of Warren.
“I can’t make a decision on that,” Chattman said of the penalty. “I’m trusting they’ll make the right decision,” she said of the jurors.
milliken@vindy.com