CJ Guion | Editor – in – Chief

On Monday afternoon, a Wake County jury found Jason Young “guilty” of first degree murder in the death of his pregnant wife. Young is a 37 year old graduate of NC State who has been on trial for the 2006 murder of his wife.

The first trial for the Young murder was declared a mistrial in June of 2011, as jurors were deadlocked and could not reach a unanimous decision.

In November 2006, Michelle Young – also a graduate of NC State and former cheerleader, was found brutally beaten to death in her Raleigh home. At the time she was five months pregnant. Her two year old daughter was also in the home at the time, but was unharmed.

Prosecutors believe that Young secretly returned from a business trip to Virginia to kill his wife. It is believed that he disabled a surveillance camera to sneak out of his room, before returning to Raleigh to murder his wife. Prosecutors then contended that he drove back to his hotel in Virginia, stopping for gasoline on the way.

A medical examiner testified that Michelle Young was hit in the head at least 30 times and that there was a large pool of blood left behind.

The verdict was delivered after 18 days of testimony in which prosecutors’ sought to prove that the murder was a case of domestic violence.

A first degree murder conviction is an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.