TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Port Richey Man Set For Trial In Mother's Slaying

ADVERTISEMENT

By TODD LESKANIC | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 20, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - The first-degree murder trial of a man accused of killing his mother will begin Wednesday morning in Pasco Circuit Court.

Ryan Joseph Young, 26, of Port Richey, will be sentenced to life in prison if convicted as charged in the April 17, 2007, slaying of his 52-year-old mother, Donna.

Prosecutors opted not to pursue the death penalty.

Investigators say Young, a convenience store clerk, went into his mother's house on Hathaway Drive to steal a ring. He didn't think his mother was home and was startled to see her lying in her bed.

Young picked up a pillow and held it over his mother's face until she died, investigators said. He then staged a robbery scene by cutting a back window screen and opening drawers.

Young called 911 but refused to perform CPR on his mother as directed by an operator, according to an arrest report.

Investigators questioned him twice on the day of his mother's death and a third time the next day, when he was arrested.

Young told detectives that he put the pillow over his mother's face, that he staged the scene to look like a robbery and that he was happy his mother was dead, according to court documents. He told them he was angry with his mother and that she was disappointed because he had recently revealed he was homosexual.

Young's lawyers argued that those statements were obtained illegally and should not be admissible, but they were overruled.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT