“Stop!”, “Stop interrupting me!”, “You have a criminal record,” Judge Gregory Carro yelled at the defendant Douglas Young on Thursday seconds before losing his cool and decreeing: “You are sentenced to 41 years and until then you can ask for probation”.
By that time, more than 10 elements of the court police were already surrounding the defendant, who is 6 feet 5 inches (2 meters) tall and weighs about 242 pounds (110 kilos), who seemed to enjoy the exchange with the judge, whom he claimed, “you allowed the prosecutors to obtain illegal evidence and this trial should not have happened!”, Young assuming the only attitude that a judge who is about to sentence does not want to hear: that of defiance.
Despite the judge’s pleas, the recently sentenced man continued with his crazy monologue, with the microphone turned off. “Your time to talk about him is over!” Carro reminded him while his lawyer, sitting next to him and who had just asked to be given only 15 years, nervously moved his left hand.
One of the prosecutors who requested the maximum sentence reminded the judge that, according to the evidence, Douglas Young, 40, killed delivery man Francisco Villalba, 32, on the night of March 29, 2021. He said the death left devastated to his brother Lucas, with whom he lived in a room in Harlem, but above all to his parents, whom he supported by sending a good part of the money he earned working 60 hours a week.
On March 23, and after 3 weeks of trial, Douglas Young was found guilty of intent to commit murder, murder while committing another felony, causing serious injury in a robbery, robbery with a deadly weapon and two relating to carrying a loaded firearm.
At the beginning of the hearing, Francisco Villalba’s family was able to speak. His brother Lucas asked for “a maximum sentence”, but clarified that whatever the number of years received by the murderer, “it will not be enough because my brother will not return.” Margarita, sister of the deceased, stated that her family “has been left without an important member who supported my parents” before revealing the lack of her brother “and the unbearable of my pain.”
“You are a murderer”
That was what Margarita Villalba told Young, before clarifying Francisco was a good citizen who did no harm to anyone. “You should not be free in the streets,” she concluded.
Before the defendant spoke, his attorney told the judge that this case “did not involve mental disorder or drug abuse but multiple personality disorder.” He blamed the prison system—where Young has been for at least 10 years of this century for various crimes—for the erratic behavior of his defendant. He then asked for 15 years for Young to “go out and pick up the plans of his youth.”
But the real shock came with the defendant’s turn. More than repentance or submission, Douglas Young put on his gloves and began the attacks, detailing from his point of view the injustices committed in this process, accusing the prosecutors of presenting illegal evidence and pointing fingers at the judge for “having allowed that injustice.”
After the confrontation with Carro, from the screams of both, Young ignoring the judge’s calls to moderate, the sentence was handed down almost simultaneously with the defendant’s claims, who was withdrawn by some of the 10 elements that surrounded him.
Pozole and rice to celebrate
After the prosecutors left in one of the corridors of the court to the applause of the three dozen Mexican attendees, almost all of them delivery men, in Collect Park, right in front of the Manhattan Criminal Court, a meal was held courtesy of the family and friends of Francisco Villalba.
In the midst of the comments of the unheard of that an indigenous native of Xalpaltlahuac, a mountain town in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, received justice in this way, dishes of red rice accompanied with chicken tinga began to circulate among the attendees,
“All this has to do with a movement of delivery people who are going to support anyone who suffers injustice,” said Juan Solano, one of those who most vigorously defended the independent movement of El Diario de los Delivers.
Then came the second course: Guerrero-style pozole, garnished with onion and serrano chile. The cans of food were enough to feed those who attended the hearing, so the food even came for the homeless people who began to gather around Margarita Villalba, who was in charge of receiving and circulating the plates with food.
“Now my brother is an Angel,” she said in front of the judge. “And he has the task of taking care of all of us.”
Even, he said, to those who are not from his family.