Toddler who stood by as her murdered mother bled to death spoke of her father on the 911 call (although salesman claims he was on a business trip)

• Michelle Young was found beaten to death at her North Carolina home in 2006. She was 5 months pregnant, with her 2-year-old daughter in the house
  
• Prosecutors say husband Jason Young, who was 160 miles away on a business trip, drove through the night to kill her
  
• Michelle's sister said toddler Cassidy spoke of her father during 911 call
  
• Young's first trial ended in June in deadlock when jurors could not agree on a verdict

By Hannah Roberts
Updated: 18:55 EST, 8 February 2012

• e-mail

A two-year-old girl, who stood by as her murdered mother bled to death, spoke of her father on a 911 call, a court heard- although he claims to have been hundreds of miles away on a business trip.

Jason Young, 37, is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of his wife Michelle Young.

The 29-year-old was five months pregnant with their second child in 2006, when she was found face-down in a pool of blood in their North Carolina home.

Scroll down for video

Murdered: Michelle Young was five months pregnant with her second child when she was found face-down in a pool of blood after being beaten to death by her husband Jason

Prosecutors described the attack, in which they say she was hit at least thirty times on the head with blunt force, as 'brutal and personal.'

The couple's two-year-old daughter, Cassidy, now seven, was in the house and found hiding in her parents' bed the next day, her bloody footprints surrounding the body.

But today, in sensational new testimony, Michelle's sister Meredith said, for the first time, that the toddler spoke of her father during the 911 call. 

Prosecutors pointed out that in the tape of the call, Cassidy is heard in the background.

During the call Meredith Fisher asked the toddler what happened to her mother and if anyone had been in the house.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Previous
• 1
• Next

• ‘Mommy’s in the trunk’: Sons of missing Utah woman gave... 'I should have killed you': Jealous boyfriend 'sent lacrosse...

Share this article

On the original call Fisher can be heard telling the dispatcher she didn't think the child understood what was happening.

According to NBC prosecutor Becky Holt asked Fisher: 'What was going on that led you to say that?'

Fisher responded: 'Earlier in the phone call, she had referenced her father. When I asked her further questions, she was saying 'he.'

'Did you talk to Cassidy? Holt probed, according to NBC.

'There on that day, when we were in the fire truck, she continued to talk about her father,' she said. 'And later when we got back to my house, a child psychologist was there, but she had just shut down.'

The fresh allegation has emerged as Young, a software salesman goes on trial for first degree murder in the death of his wife for the second time.

Husband: Jason Young, in court yesterday, accused of murdering his wife Michelle Young in the master bedroom of the family home

Witnesses: Jason Young, left, may take the stand a second time. Meredith Fisher, right, weeps as the 911 call is played

Gruesome scene: A photo of Cassidy Young's footprints in her mother's blood was shown to the court during the retrial

How it could have worked: Jennifer Marshall, general manager at the Hampton Inn in Hillsville, Virginia, describes the layout of the hotel during yesterday's session

The salesman was jailed in 2009, but released on bond of $900,000 in July last year, after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his first trial. If convicted this time he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a civil lawsuit in 2009 a judge declared that Jason killed Michelle, awarding her mother $15.6 million in compensation and punitive damages. He was barred from receiving any life insurance payout, or assets as a result of his wife's death.

In his first criminal trial, in 2011, prosecutors said that the businessman killed his wife because they were having marital problems, ABC News reported. Two women took the stand to say they'd had extra-marital sex with him in the months leading up to his wife's murder.

Young has always claimed that the night his wife was murdered he was 160 miles from home staying at a hotel in Hillsville, Virginia, while on a business trip.

Mother and child: Michelle's two-year-old daughter Cassidy, now 7, was found hiding in a bed near the crime scene

Horrific scene: Toddler Cassidy's bloody footprints were found around her mother Michelle's body after the 29-year-old was beaten to death at her home in 2006

In happier times: Jason Young, shown with wife Michelle, said in his first trial that although he was not a exemplary husband he loved his wife and had nothing to do with her death

But in his first trial the the prosecution argued that Young drove through the night to kill his wife Michelle, and then interfered with the hotel security devices to conceal his actions. 

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

• Nov 2 2006  Jason Young leaves town on business. A 20-weeks-pregnant Michelle Young is last seen alive around 10.30 pm watching the TV show Grey's Anatomy at home with friends
• Nov 3 2006 Meredith Fisher finds her sister, Michelle Young, dead in her bedroom
• Dec 2008  In a wrongful death suit filed by Linda Fisher, Michelle's mother, a judge finds that Jason Young 'willfully and unlawfully' killed his wife
• Feb 6 2009 Jason Young agrees to give Meredith Fisher primary custody of Cassidy
• March 16 2009 Linda Fisher is awarded $15.5 million in damages in the wrongful death suit.
• Dec 14 2009 After three years investigation, Young is indicted on a first-degree murder charge
• June 7 2011 Jason Young's murder trial begins
• June 27 2011 A mistrial is declared after jury is unable to agree on a verdict
• July 28 2011 Jason Young is released from jail after his mother posts a $900,000 bond.
• Feb 6 2012 Jason Young's retrial begins

Jason Young allegedly left the hotel through an emergency exit, wedging the door open so as to avoid using his key card to get back inside, prosecutors say.

'The defendant had a plan. His plan was to murder his wife, and his plan was to get away with it,' Holt told jurors in the first trial.

In his original trial Young made the unusual move of testifying in his own defence. Speaking though tears, he said that, although he was not a exemplary husband, he loved his wife and had no hand in her death.

This time the prosecution’s opening statement portrayed Young as an juvenile man who didn't want another baby around, ABC News reported.

'He was the free spirit. The adventure lover. The irresponsible. The immature. The life of the party. The jokester. The salesman,' Holt said, according to CNN.

But the defence’s opening statement argued that the state’s case is mainly circumstantial, and without direct evidence linking Young to the crime scene.

Attorney Mike Klinkosum conceded that the Youngs were having problems in their marriage, but argued that did not make Jason Young a killer. 

Klinkosum said. 'I am not here to tell you that he was a good husband. He was far from it,'

'He's acted like an obnoxious, juvenile jerk. But what you've got to remember ladies and gentlemen, is that we don't convict people of murder, just because they act like jerks.'

Meredith Fisher discovered her sister's lifeless body after getting a voice mail from Jason Young asking her to go to the house to look for some papers about an anniversary present for Michelle.

She yesterday remembered the heartbreaking moment of finding her dead sister, with her small child nearby. She told the court: 'That's the small of her back, that I touched her and felt that she was cold.'

When Fisher arrived at the Young house 'the dog was freaking out,' she said in the 911 call played back in court yesterday. Lights were on in the porch and the gate was open. When she got upstairs there was blood everywhere.  

Holt described the horrific scene that greeted Meredith: 'She found little footprints in blood. She found them around Michelle’s head. She saw them as she was coming up the stairs in Cassidy’s bathroom. She found baby dolls. A baby doll by Michelle’s head.

Wedding day: During the retrial witnesses told the court in North Carolina that Jason and Michelle Young did not have a happy marriage

Crime scene: Meredith Fisher found her sister dead after receiving a voice mail from Jason Young asking her to go to the house to look for some papers

'And she heard Cassidy say, ‘Mommy’s got boo boos.'

Jason Young showed no visible signs of emotion as the court heard Fisher's emergency call, ABC reported.

The prosecution are seeking to portray Young as a wild party boy, who cheated on his wife and is therefore untrustworthy.

Shelly Schaad, a former sorority sister of Michelle Young and the last person to see Michelle alive, took the stand painting an unflattering picture of the software salesman.

The couple's marriage was troubled and they fought openly, Schaad told the court.

'A lot of times they were silly, over things that didn’t really matter. They were constantly trying to one-up the other. And other times it was about the lack of sex in the relationship. Jason was not shy about telling us his opinion on that,' NBC reported.

Jason Young was very flirtatious with other women. Michelle had questioned him when they returned from holiday in Puerto Rico with another woman's panties in their luggage, she told the court. 

He once urinated in his pants for a dare, the court heard.

Schaad said: 'One night at my house after a tailgate he urinated on the floor in my house on the rug.

'My husband threw him in the shower and he ran out completely naked and sat down on the sofa in front of a group of people. Like it was no big deal,' she said.

'At the time we were shocked. We went along with it.'

Other times he exposed his genitals to men and women at parties, she told the court. On one occasion at the Youngs house he swallowed a woman's wedding ring, the court heard.

Accused: Jason Young was released from jail in July 2011 after posting a $900,000 bond but now could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted

Following Schaad's testimony Elmer Goad, the maintenance man from the Hampton Inn in Hillsville, where Young said he was staying, gave evidence about the night of the murder, NBC reported.

The hotel worker said he noticed a camera was unplugged at an emergency exit.

He and Keith Hicks, the night clerk, got a ladder and reconnected it, the court heard. 'I’d say within an hour after that, we looked and it was pointing up at the ceiling and the wall,' he said. 'So I went back and checked it and somebody had hit it hard enough to knock it up toward the ceiling.
'Same camera.'

Goad said, in the nine years he had worked there, he'd 'never seen a camera messed with.'

Following Goad's testimony, the court heard from a convenience store worker who says she saw Young at her gas station on the night of the murder.

Gracie Dahms Calhoun took the stand to give crucial evidence that places Jason Young, not at his hotel, but between Hillsville and his home in Raleigh, on the night of the murder.

The store clerk remembered Young because he was angry that he had to come in to pay for his gas, the court heard.

'He kept hitting the buzzer,' she said. 'He kept trying and trying and I kept hitting 'ignore.'

'When he came in to pay he started cussing and raising Cain and threw a 20 at me and told me he would get 20 and walked out,' she said.

After pumping in just $15 in gas he left, she said. She got a good look at him and his car- a white SUV, the court heard. Jason Young was driving a white Ford Explorer on the night of the murder.

In the initial trial the jury deliberated for three days before reaching deadlock. Eight jurors voted in favor of acquittal and four for conviction. The retrial is expected to last four to six weeks.

Watch the video

video platform video management video solutions video player

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2FcYWXbGhvZ3qWwLC6jJKmrqaXYqCmr86nm2asop6urXnMmqVmmpWWwW680Z6ep5meqXq4tcWeZJ2dkam1brzRnqueppSeu6h5wLCYsmWSqsCqusSsqmasop69b7TTpqM%3D