Man accused of hiring hit man to kill unborn child

Bail was set at $1 million Thursday for a Suncrest-area teen who allegedly tried to hire a hit man to kill his unborn child and, if necessary, his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

The 17-year-old ex-girlfriend was eight months pregnant when Stevens and Spokane County sheriff’s officers arrested 18-year-old Charles D. Young on Wednesday.

Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer said Young was taken into custody when he paid out $1,620 to complete a deal with an undercover detective posing as an assassin.

Young gave the detective photographs of the mother-to-be and drew a detailed map to her home in Spokane, Thayer said.

The $1,620 was a down payment on the agreed price of $3,250, according to the sheriff.

Thayer said he learned on Oct. 5 that Young was seeking a hit man.

Arrangements were made through a confidential informer, a friend of Young’s, to introduce Young to an undercover detective who was wearing a wire.

John Troberg, chief criminal deputy prosecutor, told District Court Judge Pamela Payne that the deal called for the faux hit man to kill Young’s unborn child by beating the pregnant girl’s stomach.

Young said he didn’t care whether his former girlfriend lived or died, according to Troberg.

The deputy prosecutor told Payne there was probable cause to hold Young on suspicion of soliciting first-degree murder because his “extreme indifference” created “a grave risk” that the ex-girlfriend would have been killed.

Payne agreed. She also found probable cause to hold Young on suspicion of soliciting first-degree manslaughter.

Troberg said the manslaughter charge was tentatively selected because the law specifically refers to causing the death of an unborn child capable of living outside its mother’s womb.

Troberg said in court that Young and his girlfriend broke up shortly after she became pregnant, but Young didn’t learn until July that she was expecting his child.

The girl’s parents told officers that Young’s behavior before the breakup seemed controlling and obsessive, according to Troberg.

He said the parents reported seeing Young outside their home in the middle of the night, staring at the windows.

The parents arranged a meeting with Young in late July, in which the girl told him she was pregnant.

He expressed interest in being involved in the child’s life but later called back to say he wanted nothing to do with the baby, Troberg stated.

Young, who has no previous criminal history, is to be arraigned Tuesday.

He remained in the Stevens County Jail on Thursday night.