Jury acquits Killeen man accused of Heights murder

“The defendant is found not guilty and released from all obligations related to this charge,” according to Bell County court records. The Herald confirmed the not-guilty verdict with the Bell County District Attorney’s Office. 

Young — who was booked into jail on Feb. 20, 2018 — was set to be released on Friday, according to Lt. Stacey McClinton with the Bell County Sheriff’s Office. 

The defense attorney who represented Young during the trial told the Herald that the reaction at the defense table was positive when the verdict was read.

“Mr. Young and myself were both grateful and gratified for the verdict,” defense attorney Steve Lee said Friday. “I can tell you that Mr. Young just wants to go home.”

Young is from South Carolina and moved to Killeen in 2016. 

The state’s prosecutors argued that Young shot and killed Sterling because Sterling had bullied Young over a period of months prior to the homicide, but Young’s defense team presented testimony and evidence that convinced the jury that Young’s life was in danger when he pulled the trigger. 

Heights police were called to the intersection of West Beeline Lane and South Roy Reynolds Drive in the early morning hours of Feb. 10, 2018, after a person reported finding a man in the road who was not breathing. Heights police officers arrived within minutes and began CPR, but quickly realized the man was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. 

Sterling died at the scene after suffering from five gunshot wounds, including a fatal wound to his neck, according to testimony during the trial.

The state rested its case on Wednesday afternoon after calling more than a dozen people to the stand on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday after the state rested its case, the defense called Young to the stand and also played the audio file from the night of the shooting. 

“I hope you die, (expletive); I hope I die, too, (expletive),” Sterling can be heard saying.

Young testified that he quit recording when Sterling — who already had struck Young twice with an open hand — exited the vehicle in order to fight Young. 

Young, who was seated in the backseat of the pickup truck, shot Sterling when he was at the rolled-down window.

It has been more than 11 years since a Bell County murder trial ended in a not-guilty verdict, according to a search of Herald archives. 

In April 2011, a jury found Antwon Dwyon Harris not guilty of the 2008 murder of Fred Dimock Jr. Harris faced trial twice for Dimock’s death, with the first ending in a mistrial after the jury became deadlocked.

A handful of mistrials — but not acquittals — have occurred in recent years. In May of last year, after a weeklong trial, a jury could not decide whether a 17-year-old man was guilty of capital murder. Jordan Hampton later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in the death of 24-year-old Shareef Raekwon Ali-Barnett on June 14, 2020.

Another mistrial occurred in August of last year. After deliberating for seven hours, a jury could not decide whether two Killeen women were guilty of the 2018 murder of a Temple teen.