EVERETT — Jurors were asked Tuesday to make a choice: believe that the July shooting death of a Darrington man was an ill-fated drug robbery by three men, or an attempt to save a friend’s life.
The Snohomish County Superior Court jury heard two distinctly different versions of the story when lawyers gave their opening remarks in the first-degree murder trial of an Eastern Washington man.
Matthew Steven Young, 21, is accused of firing one shot, killing Shawn Tuohy on July 21 in the parking lot of a restaurant just off I-5 at Island Crossing near Arlington.
Young and his father, Daniel Lawrence Young, 46, are both charged with murder. A third defendant, Bryce William Howe, 19, pleaded guilty earlier this month to second-degree murder after agreeing to testify against the others.
All three defendants are from Newport near the Idaho border in northeastern Washington. The trial, before Judge George Bowden in Snohomish County Superior Court, is expected to continue well into next week.
Deputy prosecutor Helene Blume told the jury the evidence will show that all three of the defendants knew about and participated in the plot to rob Tuohy after concocting the scheme on an overnight drive to Island Crossing from Newport.
She said the plan was to let Howe out of the car and hide in the bushes near the restaurant. The Youngs then were to meet Tuohy in the restaurant parking lot just after 5 a.m. Howe was supposed to rush out of the bushes and knock Tuohy out with a 12-inch wrench, Blue said.
On two earlier occasions, Tuohy had driven to Newport to purchase quantities of the strong painkiller OxyContin. On this occasion, Tuohy had arranged for Matthew Young to come to Western Washington, supposedly to buy from him 100 pills for $1,100.
"They were just going to rip off the money Shawn brought to the drug deal," Blume told the jury.
Things went awry when Tuohy was struck but not knocked out. He and Howe struggled, and Howe took a small amount of money from Tuohy.
Tuohy got his pistol from his car and fired twice at Howe, who was running north through the parking lot, Blume said. One bullet struck the wrench he still carried.
His best friend, Matthew Young, got his pistol and shot Tuohy, who died the following day.
A lot of the state’s case may be true, defense lawyer Pete Mazzone told the jurors, but he put the blame for the robbery scheme solely on Howe’s shoulders.
He told jurors that Tuohy was familiar with both the Youngs but had not met Howe, a friend of his younger brother. Mazzone said it was Howe who came up with the scheme and executed it. The Youngs merely watched him.
He said all three of the Newport residents had been popping pills and taking methamphetamine during the drive to Snohomish County. Mazzone said the drug is in demand on the street, and less costly to purchase in Eastern Washington than here.
Matthew Young had plenty of money for a then 20-year-old, including money from the state to his injured parents’ caretakers and $10,000 a year from an automobile accident settlement.
"The issue was not money. The issue was pills," Mazzone told jurors.
He told the jurors that the Youngs didn’t believe what they were seeing when Howe attacked Tuohy. His client "was looking at his friend, his best friend, doing something stupid."
When Tuohy started shooting, he wanted to save his friend’s life, Mazzone said.
"You have to decide what he’s guilty of, if anything," Mazzone said. "Our position is he’s not guilty of anything."
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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