Melee erupts in District Court

Taut emotions were released in tears and violence after a jury convicted Terrell Cochise Young on all counts in an ill-conceived robbery that resulted in the executions of four young men.

Young attacked the corrections officers who were ushering him to his cell at the county jail, court officials said. One of them had to be hospitalized, according to staff members in District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski's courtroom.

Meanwhile, Young's mother also was arrested when she slugged defense attorney Lew Wolfbrandt after contending he hadn't done enough to defend her son, who could now receive a death sentence.

Willena "Maria" Warren wasn't present when the nine woman, three man jury pronounced Young guilty of murder, robbery, kidnapping and conspiracy charges, but she walked into the courtroom as her son was being readied for his return trip to jail.

Warren asked Wolfbrandt for the jury verdict, but she didn't seem to understand his answer until Young yelled, "They convicted me of all of it."

Warren then began screaming and punching Wolfbrandt as bailiffs closed in to quell the disturbance while Young was hustled out a back door.

It took several moments to subdue and handcuff Warren before she was dragged kicking and screaming down the same hallway leading to the jail that her son had walked down minutes before.

Wolfbrandt was unhurt and said he did not want charges filed against the woman, but it is not his call since the altercation took place in front of bailiffs who also may have been victims of the attack.

The jury, which took more than five hours to reach the verdict, is expected to hear testimony at today's penalty hearing on the post-verdict violence. It will decide whether to recommend a life sentence with or without the possibility of parole or a death sentence.

Ironically, Warren is scheduled to be a witness for the defense at the hearing.

The altercation didn't dampen the elation and relief at the verdict by the victims' families and friends who held vigil outside the courtroom awaiting the jury decision and then filled the first few rows.

Before the jury was led into the courtroom for the verdict, Young sat for several minutes smiling and staring at those whose friends and family members he had helped kill. The smiles were met with unsympathetic stares from those who had awaited his conviction.

Young then grinned for newspaper and television cameras.

As the guilty verdicts were read on the robbery charges, Young smiled at the jury and nodded in agreement. He had confessed to police that he was one of the three who barged into the home in eastern Las Vegas to rob the occupants of what was believed to be $6,000 in cash and a quantity of drugs.

Sikia Smith, 19, already has been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his relatively minor role as the one who ransacked the home near Tropicana Avenue and Nellis Boulevard in search of valuables.

But the anticipated haul wasn't there, and the bandits left with only about $200, a VCR, a video game system and a few pills.

Nineteen-year-old Donte Johnson is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 10 on charges he was the one who fired the fatal bullets to prevent the victims from reporting them to police or from retaliating.

During Young's trial, Wolfbrandt and co-counsel Martin Hastings had argued to the jury that the defendant should not be convicted of murder because he was out of the house and no longer involved when the executions occurred.

But as the verdict showed the jury's disagreement, Young's mood quickly turned ugly.

When the jury forewoman smiled nervously as she meekly read the verdicts declaring Young to be guilty of the murders, he snapped at her, "What's funny about it."

The woman broke into tears as did some of the other jurors who appeared to have been crying even before they had entered the courtroom.

Young then made an obscene gesture to the cameras, although his elbows were pinned to his sides by straps from a security belt -- which included a remote-controlled stun gun device -- he was forced to wear after a violent outburst early in the trial.

His smug smiles turned to glares with the realization that the families and friends of the victims had gotten the convictions they sought.

David and Cindy Mowen, the parents of 19-year-old Matthew Mowen, hugged and cried at the verdict, and David Mowen made a quick call on his cellular telephone to announce, "We got him."

In addition to Matthew Mowen, the victims included Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringe, 20, and Peter Talamantez, 17. Each had been duct taped during the Aug. 14, 1998, robbery and killed with single bullets to the back of the head.

During the penalty hearing, Deputy District Attorneys Gary Guymon and Robert Daskas said they will present evidence of Young's juvenile record and involvement in other crimes.

Guymon said that so far the jurors have only heard about the single deadly incident, but they will hear testimony that Young shot up a small casino and hotel in an effort to kill a young man who purportedly owed him money.

No one was hurt in the incident that previously was related to the jury at Smith's trial.

Daskas said there also will be evidence that Young helped dispose of the body of a man killed at the Thunderbird Hotel, on Las Vegas Boulevard near Charleston Boulevard.

The defense attorneys say they will counter with evidence about Young's early life in an abusive household and how his life took a deadly turn after befriending Johnson three weeks before the quadruple murder.

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