A man who pumped eight bullets into one person and wounded a second will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Thorpe sentenced Tronie James Young, 31, to life without the possibility of release on Tuesday.
A jury convicted Young last month of second-degree murder and first-degree assault for a 2002 shooting in Everett during a drug deal that turned into a robbery.
Nikos Verikokidis, 22, of Everett, was shot and killed. Young also shot a second man in the head. The second man lived to testify against Young.
It’s the second time in 31/2 years that a judge has sentenced Young to life under the state’s “three strikes” persistent offender law.
A jury in 2003 also convicted Young of the same crimes. That verdict was overturned by the state Court of Appeals because a judge inadvertently told jurors too much about Young’s criminal background.
The two previous “strikes” were second-degree assault convictions in 1994 and 1997.
“The only possible legal sentence for Mr. Young is life in prison without the possibility of parole,” deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson told the judge. Young is “the kind of criminal the Persistent Offender Act was written for.”
Verikokidis’ sister, Marie Majewski, had planned to appear for the sentencing Tuesday, but she missed her flight from California, Matheson said.
Instead, she faxed her statement, which was read to the court.
“I know the defense was trying to make Nikos out to be a big-time drug dealer, but that’s not who my brother was,” she wrote. “Nikos was looking for a way out of Washington because he knew something bad was coming. He could feel it.”
She wrote that her brother was a special person who brightened the lives of family members.
“Nikos was a gift; a gift that brought happiness to his family,” she wrote. “This is the person Mr. Young ripped from our hearts and our world.”
Defense attorney Guss Markwell argued during the trial that one of Young’s companions was the gunman.
The lawyer told the judge there wasn’t much he could say about the life sentence, but he knows Young is sorry for what happened. Markwell said he wished he had met Young years ago, because “I know there’s something good deep within him.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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