Teen pleads guilty to hiring hit man

A high school acquaintance broke the case of a Suncrest-area teen who pleaded guilty Tuesday to hiring a hit man to kill his unborn child by severely beating his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

Charles D. Young, 18, pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation to commit manslaughter in the first degree, said John Troberg, chief deputy Stevens County prosecutor.

Young also pleaded guilty to the unrelated charges of reckless driving and providing false information to an officer in connection with a pursuit on March 23. He was ordered to spend the next six years in prison, Troberg said.

“Mr. Young apologized to the girl, the girl’s family and his own family for everything he put them through,” Troberg said.

Young and his girlfriend broke up last summer shortly after she became pregnant. However, Young didn’t know she was expecting his child, according to previous testimony.

The girl’s parents told detectives that after the breakup, they saw Young outside their home in the middle of the night, staring at the windows, Troberg said.

They arranged for a meeting with Young in late July at which the girl told Young she was pregnant. Young initially expressed interest in helping raise the child but later called the girlfriend to say he wanted nothing to do with the baby, Troberg said.

At the sentencing hearing, Troberg credited 19-year-old Chris Yukl for making authorities aware of Young’s desire to harm his unborn child and ex-girlfriend.

“I told the court that the victim’s family regarded Mr. Yukl as a hero for coming forward and doing this. He took it upon himself to say, ‘I think this guy is serious, and I think I need to get involved.’ “

Yukl contacted the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 5 and told investigators that Young had approached him with a problem that Young said he needed to solve.

“They got a wire-tap order and taped a conversation between Young and a Spokane County sheriff’s detective, who posed as the hit man,” Troberg said.

At the meeting, Young said he wanted the hit man to kill the unborn child by beating his pregnant girlfriend’s abdomen. Young said he didn’t care whether his former girlfriend lived, Troberg said. Young was arrested Oct. 11, when he paid a $1,620 down payment to that undercover detective. The full price of the killing was set at $3,250, according to court records

Young, who had no criminal history, recently had graduated from high school before his arrest. That weighed heavily on the prosecutors’ decision to seek the 76.5-month sentence, Troberg said.

“The girl’s mother got up and made a fairly impassioned speech,” Troberg said. She told Young “you have no idea what you lost by doing this.”

Young’s attorney, Bevan Maxey, said his client is a very intelligent young man.

“But he probably wasn’t functioning at the same level of maturity as his intelligence,” Maxey said.

When he learned the birth was a month away, Young inquired with others about what he should do, Maxey said. “He was given absolutely the wrong advice,” Maxey said, without saying who provided that advice. “Unfortunately, he chose to act on it.”

Everyone associated with the case suffered, he said.

“Both families appear to be good people who unfortunately got caught in the middle of this horrendous event,” Maxey said. “Now, (Young) appreciates he is missing out on a wonderful opportunity in his life – to enjoy this child.”