Convictions returned in Las Vegas murders of two Wood River Valley men
By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer
Two young men have been sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole for last summers murders in Las Vegas of four youths, two of
whom had been Wood River Valley residents.
Terell Young, 20, was sentenced Thursday following a month-long trial.
Sikia Smith, 19, was sentenced in July.
They were convicted of helping to kill the four victims, who were found
bound with duct tape and shot once each in the back of the head. Among them were
19-year-old Jeffrey Biddle and 21-year-old Tracey Gorringe.
Biddle had moved to Sun Valley in 1988 and attended The Community
School and Wood River High School until 1994. Gorringe had spent a small amount of time in
the area.
Prosecutors had alleged that neither of the defendants fired the shots
that killed all four victims, but were accomplices in robbing them and preparing them for
execution. The alleged shooter, Donte Johnson, 20, will be tried in January.
Even so, prosecutors had asked for the death penalty for both Young and
Smith.
"The crime was just so horrific," said Clark County, Nev.
chief deputy prosecutor Gary Guyman. "All three of the defendants knew exactly what
was going to happen before they went into the home. They went in without any masks on.
They knew that somebody was going to shoot those kids."
Jurors, however, denied the prosecutions sentencing request.
According to a story in the Las Vegas Review Journal,
Youngs sentencing came after a stormy, even violent, trial. The paper reported that
at one point, Young "went berserk, clearing the defense table of all documents,
overturning the prosecution table and tossing a chair at the jury box." At another
point, he attacked a guard, "straddling the officer and pounding his face with both
hands," the paper said.
The Review Journal also reported that during the trial,
Youngs mother attacked one of her sons attorneys, "aiming blows at his
face and back while screaming curse words." The paper said that throughout the trial,
a state of animosity existed between Youngs relatives and friends and those of the
victims. When Youngs mother began crying loudly following the sentencing,
Biddles mother asked, "What are you crying about? Your son is still alive. Ours
are all dead."
The robbery netted less than $300 in cash, a videocassette recorder, a
Nintendo game and a pager. Guyman said the defendants mistakenly believed the victims had
earned thousands of dollars through drug sales.