Life sentence for a life of “Hell”

ANDERSON – A “monster” that terrorized a family for years received a life sentence by a Grimes County Grand Jury June 23.

Thirty-six-year-old Leslie Eugene Young Jr., also known as LJ Young, was found guilty of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Although the Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon charge was the easier of the charges to prosecute, the jury heard testimony of horrific incidents Young put the family through during the sentencing phase of the trial.

“We made a calculated decision to proceed on the Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon case based on the available evidence, including an eyewitness, and respecting the wishes of the victims involved,” stated Assistant District Attorney Tammy Thomas. “We knew the jury would be able to hear about the sexual abuse and other incidents of child abuse during the punishment phase of the trial. We were confident a Grimes County Jury would harshly punish the defendant for his crimes against these victims when presented with compelling evidence.  The jury’s life sentence verdict sends a clear message about how the Grimes County community feels about child abuse.”

Sexual assault reported

Grimes County Sheriff’s Office first learned of the accusations against Young on July 15, 2022. Investigator Swank Backhus was assigned to the sexual assault of a child case and set up a forensic interview with the female victim. The victim reported being sexual assaulted repeatedly while living with Young in Bedias.

Backhus reached out to Investigator John Wren with the Grimes County District Attorney’s Office, because of Wren’s experience dealing with sexual assault cases. The duo traveled to Anderson County to meet with the victim’s mother.

The mother informed investigators she still communicated with Young and was willing to call him while investigators monitored and recorded the call. Young was confronted by the mother about various acts of physical and sexual abuse of a child that occurred while they lived together in Bedias. 

Young admitted to threatening the mother and her children with firearms, having a pre-adolescent female strip naked in front of him as “punishment” for disrespecting him and various admissions of assault against the mother and children.

Investigators widened the investigation to include interviews with the mother and additional children after hearing the call. 

Over a multi-year span, Investigators learned Young physically abused the mother and every child in the home. Childhood victims ranged in age from toddler to teenager. “In my 25 years of working in law enforcement, this case is the most extreme child physical abuse case I’ve seen,” explained Wren. 

Some of the disturbing accounts of abuse including beatings that left children with deep purple bruising, whelps, black eyes and a bloody nose from being punched in the face, choked, not being allowed to eat or attend school and having a firearm pointed at the mother. Young was charged with Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child, two counts of Aggravated Assault, Injury to a Child, Assault Family Violence-Impeding Breath and Continuous Violence Against the Family.

A warrant was served at the Bedias residence and multiple firearms were recovered including firearms matching the descriptions of those used in various aggravated assaults. Investigators also tracked down a 9mm pistol Young sold. The pistol was also used to threaten multiple victims. 

“Investigator Backhus and I worked day and night putting together this case after realizing the magnitude of the abuse,” said Wren. “We both pledged to these victims they would get justice.  During trial, Assistant District Attorneys Tammy Thomas and Meagan Callaham, along with DA Investigator Blake Baldobino, took the field work we did last summer and produced an outstanding presentation of the evidence for the jury to consider. As a team, we gave the jury the proof they needed to find LJ Young guilty. These victims now have some measure of closure on the hell they have lived through.” 

The green chair

Prosecutors filed a joinder motion seeking permission from the court to present all cases together at trial, however the court ruled the DA’s Office must pursue the indicted cases individually. Because of the ruling prosecutors elected to proceed with the Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon by threat charge against a child victim.

The trial began June 20, in the 12^th District Court with Judge David Moorman presiding. Assistant District Attorney’s Tammy Thomas and Meagan Callaham presented the case to the jury.

A male victim testified that Young abused him for years while living with him in Bedias. The child testified that prior to leaving the residence, Young pointed a black pistol at his head while he was balled up in a fetal position on a green chair. Young told the child he should kill him because he would be better without him around. The child said his mother witnessed the assault and attempted to intervene but Young assaulted her as well. He also testified that there were numerous other incidents where Young threatened him with a firearm.

While on the witness stand, the child positively identified a 9mm and .40 caliber pistol collected during the investigation as guns belonging to Young. The victim told jurors he believed the 9mm was the pistol pointed at him during the green chair incident.

Testimony continued with other nightmarish accounts from the male victim including excruciating beatings. He described an incident where he was beaten with a thin fiberglass rod so badly that whelps on his buttocks slit open and bled through his underwear. He said he still has scars from the beatings. The child testified to being punched in the face on numerous occasions where his eyeglasses were broken, and his eyes blackened.  

He said Young treated him like a slave and on many occasions called him demeaning names, including racial slurs. The child told jurors the violence against him were too many to count. He described having trouble separating events or giving an exact sequence of the different assaults because they were so frequent.

The mother’s testimony corroborated the child’s account of the green chair assault. 

The “monster” within

When the mother first met Young, she never anticipated needing help getting out of the relationship. 

She testified that Young was kind to her initially but slowly became abusive. Throughout the majority of their relationship, she said Young didn’t work. He spent the majority of his time playing Xbox and having his gaming interrupted would set him off. 

She told the jury that daily violence against her and her children became a daily part of life and she was also threatened with firearms. The mother feared going to law enforcement because she thought she wouldn’t be believed. She also feared what Young would do to her and the children if he was released on bond.

According to her testimony, Young was skilled at putting on a fake persona and only a few people had any idea of the abuse happening in the home. During the COVID shutdown, the mother testified the violence worsened because the children rarely left home. She said the confinement allowed the bruises and signs of abuse to go undetected. Nearing the end of 2020, she confided in a group of female friends who were also her coworkers. 

Over the next six months the women developed a plan to help her and her children escape the abuse. The women saved money, collected essential household necessities and found them a home in Anderson County. Slowly, the mother said she and her children began sneaking items such as children’s clothing, shoes and toys out of Young’s residence by pretending they were trash.

The mother testified that Young awoke her in the middle of the night in May of 2021, saying he dreamed he killed her, and her children and his problems were gone. She told her coworkers the next morning and they knew they had to get the family out immediately. 

Two days later they enlisted one of the husbands to help. He lured Young from the home by taking him to a mud park near Huntsville. Once the confirmation text was received that Young was at the mud park, her friends traveled to the home as a group, rapidly packed the children and some belongings and left the residence for good.

The mother said the children hadn’t attended school for over a year. She said Young wouldn’t allow them to attend school and rarely allowed them to interact with anyone outside the home. Once she moved, she enrolled the children back in school. The mother told the jury she finally filed a police report in July 2022 after learning of additional child abuse.

Jurors heard the controlled call where Young admitted to pointing guns at the child victim and the mother.

The jury also heard from both a family violence expert and a child abuse expert. They learned about the cycle of family violence, the impact of trauma memory, why delayed reporting is common and child abuse grooming techniques and other amongst related topics.

Punishment phase testimony

The jury heard from an eyewitness, who saw one of the children get punched in the face at a holiday event while the family was still living in Bedias.

Another eyewitness testified while visiting Young’s home they too saw a child get beaten with a rod by Young to the point the child could not leave the home for two weeks because of visible injuries. The eyewitness saw another child get punched in the face by Young.  

Both eyewitnesses testified they did not report the incidents or intervene because they knew it would make the situation worse for the mother and children.  

A third child testified to being choked by Young while living with him. This child said he was approximately 7 years old when the incident happened. The child said Young used one hand to pick him up off the ground by his throat. He described being unable to breath before being slammed to the ground by Young and then being hit repeatedly in the face.

The sexual assault victim then testified. She recounted numerous incidents of being sexually assaulted by Young. She told the jury after the assaults began, Young forced her to take a pregnancy test and told her if she was pregnant, he would make her have an abortion. She also told the jury that Young told her he would kill her, and anyone she told, about the sexual abuse. She told the jury because she had also been physically abused and seen Young beat and point guns at others in the household, she believed his threats.

The aggravated assault victim, from the primary offense on trial, testified about the struggles he was having at this point in his life because of the trauma of his youth. He described dropping out of school because he had never been allowed to consistently attend school and was too far behind his peers. He said he consistently deals with anger management issues. The victim told jurors he plans to begin working toward his GED, getting his driver’s license and finding employment once the trial was over. 

Finally, the mother testified a second time. She told the jury about the day she learned about the sexual abuse in July 2022. The mother recounted an argument with the female victim.  During the argument, the victim blurted out that Young had raped her prior to getting away from his home. The mother said at this point she couldn’t remain silent and reported the sexual abuse to law enforcement officials immediately.

The mother tearfully told the jury she had never reported the physical abuse out of fear of retaliation from Young, having no place to go, fear that she would not be believed and not wanting to abandon any of the children in the home.  

She testified that the last few months of living with Young, she feared on a daily basis that Young was going to eventually kill the oldest child. 

Closing arguments were then given in the punishment phase of the trial. Prosecutors asked the jury to sentence Young to life in prison. Prosecutors said the jury had been presented with overwhelming evidence that Young’s conduct was deserving of such a sentence.

After about 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a life sentence verdict, that included a $10,000 fine.

“Thank God for the bravery of the sexual assault victim in this case,” said Assistant District Attorney Meagan Callaham. “Her outcry is what got the ball moving toward justice and putting a monster behind bars. God bless those phenomenal women, who stepped up and helped these victims escape. These women gave their time and money in such a selfless and caring way. They are heroes in this story.”

“I am so proud of the victims in this case,” explained Crime Victims Liaison Gilverta Diaz. “Each of them had a story to share with the jury. They were able to find the courage and strength to get on the stand and face their abuser. Our office has been involved with extending resources to this family over the past year.  Several organizations within Grimes County have also helped them. Everyone on our team cares about their well-being and wants to see them recover and succeed. We are praying for them as they move forward.”

Crime Victims Coordinator Brenda Williams said “This case is a reminder of why education on family violence is so important. Victims are frequently isolated from any support system by their abuser. The abuser wants total control over the victim, so the victim feels entirely dependent upon them.”

Williams said not reporting abuse is common, “It is common for family violence victims to fail to report abuse or delay reporting abuse. They often hate the abuse but love the abuser. This is especially true in child abuse situations where a parental figure is the abuser. The victim may fear retaliation, homelessness, loss of financial stability or inability to care for their dependent children.  There are many reasons victims fail to report abuse.”

Williams urges, “If you are seeing signs of adult family violence or child abuse or if you are experiencing abuse, please reach out to your local law enforcement agency or Crime Victims Services Coordinator. Help and resources are available.”

Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon by Threat is a second-degree felony. Young faced a punishment range of 5 to 99 years or life in prison because he pled true to an enhancement.  The enhancement was based on a prior felony conviction for Burglary of a Habitation out of Harris County, Texas.

Young is currently in the Grimes County Jail awaiting transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.