The five men charged with the murder of Evon "YungLT" Young have been ordered to stand trial in Milwaukee, reports WISN and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The 22-year-old transgender man was an emerging local rapper and songwriter. Young was tortured and killed on January 2. Detectives continue to search a landfill for Young's remains.
The five men are charged with first-degree intentional homicide. Police say there are differing accounts of the motive. The "altercation stemmed from a vendetta Griffin had with his roommate, but the detective said it escalated into the group beating and then shooting Young," reports WISN.
More details from yesterday's hearing at the Journal Sentinel. Warning: The details are graphic.
[Victor] Stewart claimed a beef had been simmering since a [house burglary] in August. According to the criminal complaint, the group accused Young of assisting in that burglary. ... [Detective Timothy Graham said] Ashanti Mcalister was holding a .22 caliber handgun and then struck Young twice in the face with the gun.
The group then took Young to the basement. Stewart told Graham that Young went willingly because he didn't believe he was going to be killed. But after Allen tried to suffocate him with a plastic bag, Young began fighting back. He was thrown to the floor. Then Allen, straddling the victim's back, took a three-foot length of chain that was in the basement, wrapped an end around both his hands and used the rest to strangle Young.
At some point, Stewart said, Mcalister shot Young three times and later disposed of his body in a trash bin, which Allen returned to later and set on fire.
Police believe the dumpster was removed on January 7 or 8 and taken to the Waste Management landfill site in Menomonee Falls. Three weeks after the body was disposed, the very difficult search for Young's remains began on Monday. Today is Day 4. Investigators are focusing on an area 200 feet by 200 feet—and 15 feet deep—of compacted trash.
A Facebook memorial "In Memory of Yung LT aka Evon Young" has been created.
Will they ever find Evon Young's remains? And will we ever learn why he was killed?
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Rod, you asked 'will we ever learn why [Evon Young] was killed'?
Maybe we will or maybe we won't, but here's my take based on your excellent reporting on this case. Evon apparently based his "masculinity" on the black thug/gangster model we've probably all seen and/or heard about.
Evon might have thought he was a real thug/gangster but his thug associates, no doubt, disagreed. Evon's thug associates did not think he was one of them. They thought he was a FREAK who DESERVED to die so they murdered and disposed of him in a very brutal fashion.
My advice: if you are a LGBT person, stop trying to twist yourself into pretzels trying to be "accepted" by people who HATE you. In fact, get away and STAY AWAY from people who hate you including your own family members if necessary. There are good people in the world who will accept you as you are. But it's up to YOU to find them and cultivate them.
Posted by: elg | 02 February 2013 at 10:35