Man convicted in drug deal murder gets life in prison

Published 9:00 pm Monday, December 1, 2003

Tronie James Young stood expressionless in front of a judge Monday and declared that he doesn’t think he got a fair trial.

There was no apology; there were no tears. The only emotion displayed by the 28-year-old Everett man was defiance.

With that, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer declared Young a persistent offender under state law and sentenced him to life in prison without possibility of release.

"He’s precisely the type of criminal the writers of the persistent offender act had in mind when they wrote it," deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson told the judge. "Mr. Young is a violent individual that needs to be separated from society."

In early November, a jury convicted Young of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was convicted in the June 2002, shooting death of Nikos Verikokidis, 22, of Everett during a drug robbery in a south Everett apartment complex. That same night, Jeff Curran, 38, of Everett was shot once in the head, but the bullet bounced off his skull, and he lived to testify against Young.

Young has three second-degree assault convictions from 1994 and 1997. This year’s assault and murder convictions make him a persistent offender under the state’s "three-strikes" law.

Verikokidis’ sister, Marie Matewski, came to court Monday from her home in California to tell the judge that Young’s actions shattered her family and destroyed a good life.

"He took away my brother. He took away my brother’s dreams," she told Allendoerfer. "And he took away his chance to be a father, which he always wanted."

Young told the judge that his attorneys were ineffective. A black man, he also claimed his trial was unfair because there were no racial minorities on the jury.

A second defendant in the case, Joseph E. Tavares Jr., 20, was acquitted by the jury when the prosecution couldn’t prove that Tavares knew that he, Young and a third person were going to the apartment to rob Curran and Verikokidis.

Tavares testified that he merely went to the apartment to do a favor for a friend by setting up a deal to purchase some marijuana.

The third person in the case, Jamal Commis Holmes, 29, of Lynnwood, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and is serving a 15-year prison sentence. Holmes also testified against Young.

Monday’s sentencing almost didn’t happen. Trial Judge Charles French was ill, and Allendoerfer stepped in to sentence Young.

Defense attorneys Ronald Ness and John Cross objected, saying that French knows the case and should sentence Young. Allendoerfer agreed with Matheson, ruling that it was not critical for a judge to have full knowledge of the case if Young is to be sentenced to prison for life under the three-strikes law.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.