Jury begins deliberations in Jason Young retrial
A Wake County jury deliberated for more than five hours Friday without reaching a verdict in the retrial of Jason Young, who is accused of first-degree murder in the November 2006 beating death of his wife, Michelle Young.
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The eight women and four men received the case around 10:15 a.m. and spent more than five hours behind closed doors before heading home for the day. They will resume 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Jason Young, 37, was arrested in December 2009 and went to trial last summer, but it ended in a mistrial after more than 12 hours of deliberation in which the jury deadlocked 8-4 in favor of acquittal.
Jurors in his retrial are considering three possible verdicts: guilty of first-degree murder, guilty of second-degree murder and not guilty. If convicted of first-degree murder, Jason Young faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. A second-degree murder conviction could mean up to 25 years in prison.
A guilty verdict on the second-degree murder charge was not an option in the first trial.
Jason Young has said that he was in Virginia on business at the time, but prosecutors say he returned home to Raleigh in the early hours of Nov. 3, 2006, and committed the crime before returning to Virginia to continue on with his trip.
Michelle Young's sister discovered the body more than nine hours later, as well as the Youngs' 2-year-old daughter, Cassidy, unharmed and hiding under the covers of her parents' bed.
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