A northern Virginia mother who sedated her two daughters with melatonin-laced gummy bears before fatally shooting them was sentenced Friday to 78 years in prison.
Veronica Youngblood, 38, was arrested in August 2018 after shooting daughters Sharon Castro, 15, and Brooklynn Youngblood, 5, in their apartment in McLean. Castro survived long enough to call 911 and tell a dispatcher she had been shot by her mother. Jurors heard a recording of that call during a two-week trial that was so traumatic that jurors inquired about whether they could receive trauma therapy.
Youngblood told detectives that she planned to kill them and herself following a protracted custody dispute. Ron Youngblood, her ex-husband, told The Associated Press after the hearing that he had wanted to move to Missouri with both daughters but had reluctantly agreed to take only Brooklyn after his ex-wife objected.
Melatonin laced? Weird way to word it.
I think the shooting bit did it, not the gummy bears
IANL but I bet the gummies added substantially to the sentence as it showed premeditated intent. Feeding someone something and waiting vs snapping in the moment and killing.
You’re on the right track, but in the article they say the crime was determined to be premeditated because she bought the gun just a week prior to the murders.
What if I just go buy a gun, and while holding it have an existential crisis and shoot myself or family?
I’m sure it happens. Ever stand at the edge of a cliff and wonder about how easy it’d be to just take a step over? That kinda thing.
Gummies would convince me better beyond a reasonable doubt vs they just happened to buy it recently. (Edit unless it was bedtime and it was a normal thing)
But that’s just me. Also BOTH is even more proof than just one or the other.
I’m not arguing with you and I don’t know why you’re responding to my post like we’re having a debate. I do not care either way. I was pointing out that the thing you were guessing about was written concretely in the article.
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Why do you say that?
Laced means tainted with something. These are melatonin gummies she bought at cvs, probably.
If she told the kids they were just eating regular gummies rather than sleep inducing ones, then “laced” is still appropriate here.
I think it’s homeopathic or something like that.
Homeopathy is where you dilute something so many times that there are statistically zero molecules of it left in the substance you’re diluting it in, and that somehow makes it more potent. (Narrator: It doesn’t.)
Melatonin is an actual substance that tells your brain, “Hey, you’re pretty tired, you should be sleeping right now,” and it’s hella effective and extremely safe.
It’s a natural hormone that promotes sleep.
Nah they have melatonin gummies and pills for a sleep aid and regular doctors will recommend them I take em a lot to help sleeping during the day I’ve been on night shift for 5 years or so and these help out here n there.
Unfortunately story as old as humanity
Not to be confused with Madea, although equally tragic
I don’t know why taxpayers need to pay to shelter and feed this woman for 78 years… I get it, humans abuse the death sentence, but there are plenty of cases where it’s the answer.
Death penalty litigation is always more expensive than just jail.
That sounds like a system issue and a cause of groups attempting to make the death penalty less attractive. Once there is irrefutable proof that a horrific crime such as this has been committed, there is no argument thus far that has convinced me death isn’t the most logical punishment. I’ve heard them all, for…a long time. The only thing that keeps me from the 100% point is that, like I said, humans have a history of abusing it when it comes to minority’s or the ‘irrefutable proof’ part.
It’s never the answer because we can never be 100% correct. And the government putting innocent people to death is horrific.
It’s also more expensive so the ONLY reason to put people to death is to satisfy bloodthirsty vengeance.
“It’s never the answer because we can never be 100% correct.” The only argument I partially concede to. We as humans abuse systems to achieve our own goals, and ‘truths’ are all a matter of perspective. “And the government putting innocent people to death is horrific.” Hard disagree. They do it all the damn time and at least it would be under the guise of justice in this case.
“It’s also more expensive so the ONLY reason to put people to death is to satisfy bloodthirsty vengeance.” You seem pretty biased here. Any time someone tries to debate a point with the words ‘only’ or similar but then base it off perspective, is a flawed debate.
The fact that you don’t find government murder of innocents to be appalling means there’s no debate to be had.
My hard disagree wasn’t with the actual gov murder of innocents, it was with dragging that into the debate.I did reread how I worded it and even confused myself so I can see I didn’t express it correctly. I guess a better way for me to have worded that is, if we’re going to wax apathetic about government murder of innocents, fix that problem separately. It has nothing to do with cases where there is obvious guilt.
Because the killer are monsters, and we, the people, are not.
Murder and justice are two different types of killings, in my opinion.
Isn’t this more of a punishment than the death sentence? When she’s dead she can’t suffer anymore. Now she’ll suffer for the rest of her life.
It has nothing to do with the suffering… It is the most economical and straightforward way to deal with the punishment. If I had personal ties to it, I would probably want them to be alive and suffer Clockwork Orange style…
