Mom admits she went ‘too far' after 14-year-old son dies from over 1,100 injuries sustained during three-hour beating, cops say
Denaya Young, 29, was arrested on January 30 and charged with a second-degree murder charge, the Seattle Police Department said in a probable cause statement viewed by the Idaho Statesman.
The 14-year-old, who was not named, sustained 1,172 injuries on his body, including on his head, neck, ears, torso, arms and legs, according to the medical examiner. He died from blunt force trauma.
Young told detectives that she beat the teenager with an HDMI cord when she discovered he had not cleaned the kitchen or any of his other chores.
'I just kept swinging the (HDMI) chord, I should have listened, but I kept saying you're gonna stand up and do your chores and he was like mom I'm dizzy, I can't do it, and I thought he was faking,' she told the detective.
Young's son cried out for help as she hit him with the cord until she 'lost count' and he collapsed, police said.
When she saw that the teen wasn't moving, she called 911.
'I went too far,' Young told the authorities.
The boy's stepfather was in the home during the beating along with his three younger half-siblings, police said.
Young remains in King County Jail on a $3 million bond.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Anjanette Young ordinance slated for vote — without no-knock warrant ban
A years-in-the-making ordinance overhauling the Chicago Police Department's search warrant policy could at last get over the finish line in September, advocates hope, but without the ban on no-knock warrants Mayor Brandon Johnson promised in his 2023 campaign. Instead the Anjanette Young ordinance, named after the Black social worker who police handcuffed and left naked in her home while serving a warrant at the wrong address, will require cops to wait 30 seconds before entry. It's a compromise accepted by both Young and her main council ally, Ald. Maria Hadden, one that reflects the shift in the political climate since demand for police accountability reached a fever pitch during the Black Lives Matter movement that exploded in 2020. The new version grants Hadden, Young and her supporters the ability to claim a win that they say will still protect Chicagoans. But the struggle thus far to build consensus behind the tougher ordinance, despite the citywide furor over police mistreatment of Young, reflects the difficulty activists faced in turning energy around the George Floyd protests into legislation. While Young and Hadden said they still support a no-knock ban in the future, and Johnson campaigned on such a law, the mayor has avoided giving his current stance on the issue. 'It's an ongoing conversation,' the mayor told reporters this week about whether a no-knock ban remains on his agenda. 'These reforms and transformations certainly don't come easily, but it doesn't stop us, prevent us or curtail us, quite frankly, from pursuing justice.' The pivot comes after five years of Young and Hadden focusing on no-knock warrants, which allow officers to forcibly enter homes without announcing themselves, as the chief target of the legislation. Their calls to abolish those search warrants joined the nationwide movement triggered by the 2020 police shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed in Louisville, Kentucky, during a flawed drug investigation. But while outlawing no-knock warrants may make for a more impressive win, Young said the sharp drop in those types of raids occurring over the years allowed her to feel comfortable with taking the ban out for now. 'Now ultimately, would I love to see no-knock warrants completely banned in the city, the state and across the country? Absolutely,' Young said. 'But I feel hopeful in the sense that if this ordinance passed, we have a tangible piece of legislation that allows for accountability.' To be sure, the wrongful 2019 police raid on Young's home was not the result of a no-knock warrant. Rather, police conducted a knock-and-announce raid at the wrong address, which the mayor argued in July should be the focus of the ordinance instead because those comprise the majority of Chicago police search warrants. Johnson did not say which party suggested taking the no-knock ban out. But according to Hadden, police Superintendent Larry Snelling's team did so and the mayor's office did not object to the change. After looking at Chicago police data showing no-knock warrants have been 'barely used,' Hadden said she and Young agreed it was not worth jeopardizing the success of an ordinance that had been subject to years of false starts and stops. 'We want to get something passed that's actually addressing the problematic behavior, and if that means some compromises, we're willing to do it,' Hadden said. 'We can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.' CPD officers last year executed 210 residential search warrants — an 84% decrease from 2019, the year of the Young raid, when officers used residential search warrants nearly 1,400 times, according to figures provided by the Police Department. Data on how many were no-knock warrants was not publicly available. Over the last six years, internal Chicago police directives as well as the federal consent decree on the department have also been expanded to add new provisions surrounding search warrant execution. Even the weaker version could put Johnson at odds with Snelling, whose office has not endorsed the 30-second rule that the mayor has pitched as a more precise tool to prevent botched police raids. That could stymie buy-in from pro-law enforcement aldermen who might be reluctant to buck police leadership — and set the stage for an awkward split between the mayor and his top cop. Chicago police declined to comment on the pending legislation. Johnson confirmed at an unrelated news conference, however, that Snelling was hesitant to endorse the latest version. 'There are some concerns that the superintendent has raised. We're going to continue to work through this process,' Johnson said. 'The most important thing though that I know that the superintendent is committed to — this is my commitment — is to work to make sure that that trauma that Ms. Anjanette Young experienced, that that doesn't happen again. And I commend Anjanette Young for her steadfastness and commitment to ensuring that this ordinance not only sees the life of day, that it actually becomes law.' The ordinance is currently in the council Police and Fire Committee after Hadden introduced it last month. If it passes there, it could get an up-or-down vote in the full council as soon as September. Ald. Chris Taliaferro, the mayor's handpicked chair of the committee, said he hasn't made up his mind on the measure yet, but 'even a time limit placed on entry needs to be discussed … to see what is not only best for our residents, but what's best for the safety of our police officers as well.' The official language requires cops 'knock and announce the officer's presence at a volume loud enough for the officer to reasonably believe the occupants inside can hear, allow at least 30 seconds before entry, and delay entry if the officer has reason to believe that someone is approaching the dwelling's entrance with the intent of voluntarily allowing the officer to enter.' There is an exception during 'an exigent circumstance,' such as imminent danger of death or grave injury 'provided that the imminent danger is not created by law enforcement service and executing the residential search warrant.' Besides that provision, the latest version also requires the Police Department to establish a policy addressing gun-pointing and any raids at homes with children 16 and younger as well as the elderly and disabled. On Feb. 21, 2019, police botched the execution of a warrant and went to the wrong home, restraining Young instead of an unrelated male suspect while she was getting ready for bed. Officers did not allow her to put on clothes and handcuffed her during their search. The raid at Young's home was captured on officers' body cameras and quickly went viral after the video was publicly released, sparking one of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot's biggest police accountability scandals of her term. Since then, Young has crusaded against the Police Department's search warrant process and was awarded a $2.9 million settlement in December 2021. In 2022, Hadden attempted to push the Anjanette Young ordinance forward in a City Council committee but failed in a 10-4 vote. That was after a previous version presented to the body in 2021 also never garnered a floor vote as Lightfoot argued such reforms should be reflected within Police Department directives, not codified in law. The earlier legislation would have banned no-knock warrants except in the case of 'exigent circumstances.' One critic of Johnson's decision to back off a no-knock warrant ban in the new version came from an unlikely corner of the City Council. Ald. Raymond Lopez, a member of City Council's more conservative bloc, called for a six-month moratorium on no-knock warrants in 2020. He said last week, 'If someone like me who is unashamed of my support for law enforcement can propose significant and sweeping changes to our warrant execution, why can't a progressive mayor?' Meanwhile, Illinois Democrats are still working through their own proposal for a statewide ban. This past session in the General Assembly, Young testified before state lawmakers on legislation sponsored by state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat, to prohibit most no-knock search warrants. It passed committee before lawmakers adjourned, and Buckner said he intends to move it along either in the fall veto session or next year. The former mayoral candidate noted that it had bipartisan support and also the backing of the Illinois State Rifle Association. 'If Democrats in the city of Chicago can't figure out how to get this done, but you have Republicans from downstate and from rural districts who understand the need and the necessity, it's a little curious,' Buckner said. 'But I believe that we'll find a way to get there, both in the city and in the state.' Young said she wasn't involved much in politics before the botched raid in 2019. Now, she can rattle off the City Council legislative process, the ins and outs of court cases on other wrongful police raids and the latest negotiations with the consent decree monitor. She said she isn't fazed by the latest hurdle in her long-winding road to get to what she hopes is the final stage of her namesake ordinance, either. 'Things start to fade when no one is paying attention, and so I refuse to let the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois not pay attention to me and what happened to me,' Young said.
NBC News
08-08-2025
- NBC News
Suspect repeatedly reversed course on plea deals in robbery of Arizona dancer he is accused of killing, documents show
The Arizona man accused of targeting exotic dancers in gunpoint robberies and brutally killing one of the victims years later repeatedly reversed his decision on plea deals in the robbery cases, including one that would have reduced the charges to a low-level felony with little prison time, court documents show. In 2021, Cudjoe Young, 29, turned down an agreement to plead guilty to disorderly conduct and serve 2½ years in prison followed by probation, according to a joint pretrial statement obtained by NBC News. Weeks later, Young reversed himself and told prosecutors he wanted the deal, according to the statement. He ultimately rejected the offer during a court hearing. For more on this case, listen to the Dateline: True Crime Weekly podcast. Young faces a maximum prison sentence of 36 years combined in connection with charges of armed robbery in October 2020 and attempted armed robbery the following month, according to the statement. The statement does not indicate what prompted the reversals. Young, once described by his lawyers as an aspiring professional football player, also stands accused with two co-defendants in a horrific murder plot that targeted one of the robbery victims, Mercedes Vega. Vega was found beaten, burned and shot in an abandoned car on an interstate outside Phoenix on April 17, 2023, less than two years after Young rejected the plea. Young has pleaded not guilty in both cases, which are ongoing. A co-defendant in the murder case, Sencere Hayes, has pleaded not guilty. A third defendant in that case, Jared Gray, has not been arraigned. Authorities have not identified a motive in the killing, but Vega's family has said they believe it was to silence her. Vega, 22, had been scheduled to appear at a court hearing in the armed robbery case on the day she was found dead, according to her mother, Erika Pillsbury. Vega's parents have said she might still be alive if the robbery cases hadn't been repeatedly delayed and if she had been better protected while she waited to testify. A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to comment. In a motion filed last week, the deputy county attorney prosecuting the robberies pointed to a recent effort by Young to change attorneys in the those cases and accused him of 'a calculated effort to manipulate the court into postponing his trial.' 'It has been almost five years since the crimes alleged in this case and justice has been continually denied,' the prosecutor wrote. Aaron Reed, a lawyer for Young, declined to comment, noting that the pleas were offered before he became Young's attorney. Reed also would not comment on the delays, but in a filing he called the prosecutor's allegations 'off base and false.' The pretrial statement shows that Young rejected three plea offers between August 2021 and last December. On Jan. 27, 2022, roughly a month after he rejected the disorderly conduct charge, he reversed himself and said he wanted the deal, according to the statement. 'With an agreement reached we asked Judge Beresky to fit us in for a change of plea after lunch,' the statement says, noting that all parties arrived to the hearing after the break. 'Defendant again rejected the plea,' the statement says. Another proposed agreement would have reduced the charges to attempted armed robbery with a maximum prison sentence of 3½ years. Young initially indicated he would accept the offer, according to the statement, but needed time to get his affairs in order. He later rejected the plea during a court hearing, the document states. Prosecutors' final offer came on Dec. 18, 2024, nearly two years after Vega's death: in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated assault, he would serve 7½ years in prison, according to the statement. 'No settlement was held because Defendant didn't believe it would be fruitful,' the document states. Trial for the two robbery cases was scheduled for last month, but the proceedings were delayed after Young asked for his lawyer to be removed. He initially planned to represent himself, the former lawyer said, though the defendant appeared at his arraignment for murder charges last Friday with Reed, a private attorney who is representing him on the murder and robbery cases. Court documents, police reports and interviews show that three dancers who worked at Le Girls, a Phoenix strip club, told authorities that a masked gunman robbed them or tried to rob them after they finished working a late shift between November 2019 and November 2020. Young was charged in two of the cases, including Vega's. No suspect was identified in the third case. Vega's family has said that after she was robbed, she left her Phoenix apartment building for what she believed was a more secure home in nearby Tempe. Authorities have said she was violently abducted from the parking garage of that new building on the night of April 16, 2023. Vega was found hours later in the back of a Chevrolet Malibu on Interstate 10 near Tonopah, roughly an hour west of Phoenix, after a motorist reported seeing a burning car. A medical examiner's report listed Vega's cause of death as conflagration, blunt force and ballistic injuries. The report noted the smell of bleach in her throat. A probable cause statement in the case alleges that after the Malibu was bought through an online seller, Young paid two people to pick it up. Authorities have also suggested that he may have bought his co-defendants' plane tickets to Arizona from Tennessee, where Young is originally from.
CBS News
05-08-2025
- CBS News
Woman arrested after allegedly disturbing Pompano Beach sea turtle nest, BSO says
A woman was arrested Sunday after being caught on camera allegedly disturbing a protected sea turtle nest in Pompano Beach, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office. The incident comes during the height of South Florida's turtle nesting season, a critical time when volunteers work to ensure hatchlings safely reach the ocean. Every night, Doug Young and about two dozen South Florida Audubon Society volunteers walk up and down the beach, checking on nests and assisting hatchlings. "They get disoriented because of white light. They are going west, north, and south instead of east to the ocean," Young said. Sea turtle nesting season typically runs through October, when female turtles come ashore, dig holes and lay hundreds of eggs in the sand. The eggs hatch in about two months, and artificial lighting near beaches can often confuse the hatchlings' path to the water. According to BSO, Misty Dawn Smith was arrested near the 700 block of North Ocean Boulevard. "Deputies made contact with several unhoused individuals… one was caught on camera disturbing a sea turtle nest," the agency said in a statement. "She faces one count of destroying, selling, or molesting turtle eggs or nests. Smith also faces charges for a warrant out of Kentucky." There are currently 2,777 turtle nests on Broward County beaches, including 2,278 loggerheads, 446 greens and 53 leatherbacks. "The main thing is to be respectful of these creatures who've been around longer than we have," Young said.
