Jury Finds Height and Young Guilty of 2nd-Degree Murder

By D.C. Witness Staff - April 12, 2018
Court | Featured | Homicides | Suspects | Uncategorized |

A jury recently found two murder defendants guilty of the 2014 shooting of Willard Carlos Shelton.

After a three week trial, the jury found April 5 Tyrone Height and James Young guilty of second-degree murder while armed, felony murder while armed, armed robbery, first-degree burglary while armed, tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, and other related weapons offenses after only two days of deliberations. Height, 25, and Young, 25, are scheduled to be sentenced on June 22 by Superior Court Judge Milton Lee.

On April 3, the prosecution told the jury about the defendants’ desperation as the men tried to unsuccessfully cover up Shelton’s murder by fabricating stories to law enforcement, attorneys and a judge.

Shelton, 38, a resident of Alexandria, Va., was said to have been in the Wellington Park neighborhood to by PCP, a drug that has mind altering effects, including hallucinations, distorted perceptions of sounds, and violent behavior, on Aug. 31, 2014. The prosecution said Young and Height thought no one would care about the death of an “outsider.”

Several eyewitnesses testified that Young and Height were the shooters, but they did not cooperate with authorities and changed their stories, frequently. “You see the same thing over and over… a neighborhood where people don’t trust the police,” the prosecution said, noting that witnesses are placed in difficult positions when they are called to testify.

However, testimonies from witnesses were not the only pieces of evidence available to the jury. The jury also considered physical evidence, including a photo of a bloody print, on a vehicle, from the hand Shelton supposedly used to hold a revolver; two revolver shell casings and 13 shell casings from a .40 caliber pistol — the murder weapon — among other objects.

The verdict was rendered despite defense lawyers attempts to show reasonable doubt through stories about piloting an airplane and working on a ranch, a 50-foot margin of error with a GPS tracking device, Young’s testimony, the prosecution’s inability to connect Height to the “Wellington Over Everything” moniker and efforts to invalidate witness testimonies. The defense also tried to present a case for self defense, arguing that Shelton was carrying a revolver.

The defense said the desperation lay with Shelton, who was unemployed at the time, because he went to the Wellington Park neighborhood to rob Young.

However, according to the prosecution, robbing someone in Wellington Park was a fool’s errand because the apartment complex located on the 2500 block of Pomeroy Road, SE only had one way in and out.