A northern Virginia mother who sedated her two daughters with melatonin-laced gummy bears before fatally shooting them was sentenced Friday to 78 years in prison.
Veronica Youngblood, 38, was arrested in August 2018 after shooting daughters Sharon Castro, 15, and Brooklynn Youngblood, 5, in their apartment in McLean. Castro survived long enough to call 911 and tell a dispatcher she had been shot by her mother. Jurors heard a recording of that call during a two-week trial that was so traumatic that jurors inquired about whether they could receive trauma therapy.
Youngblood told detectives that she planned to kill them and herself following a protracted custody dispute. Ron Youngblood, her ex-husband, told The Associated Press after the hearing that he had wanted to move to Missouri with both daughters but had reluctantly agreed to take only Brooklyn after his ex-wife objected.
The fact that you don’t find government murder of innocents to be appalling means there’s no debate to be had.
My hard disagree wasn’t with the actual gov murder of innocents, it was with dragging that into the debate.I did reread how I worded it and even confused myself so I can see I didn’t express it correctly. I guess a better way for me to have worded that is, if we’re going to wax apathetic about government murder of innocents, fix that problem separately. It has nothing to do with cases where there is obvious guilt.