CASPER, Wyo. — The man who killed two people with a gun on Highway 20-26 last August was given two concurrent life sentences by Seventh Judicial District Court Judge Josh Eames on Friday.
Luke Thomas Young, 26, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of 27-year-old Kameron Young-Johnson and 19-year-old Acacia Colvin.
District Attorney Dan Itzen noted the aggravating factor that formed the basis for the first-degree charges: Young had escaped from felony work release in Gillette five days before the murders.
Young said Friday he’d never held “malicious thoughts or intent” toward the victims.
“I didn’t plan this,” Young said. He said he’d read the victim impact statements and felt “sick” with remorse: “I took two amazing people from the world that night.”
Young had also pleaded guilty to felony assault for pointing a gun at a witness who came upon the murder scene outside Casper shortly after 11 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2022.
Statements in court indicate Young and Young-Johnson were close friends, and Young-Johnson had helped board Young following his escape. Young and the victims had reportedly traveled together on the day of the crime to Worland to deliver methamphetamine and fentanyl.
On their return, Young said they all smoked methamphetamine during a stop in the Wind River Canyon. Young was riding in the backseat.
When entering the factual basis for his plea, Young told this to the court in March, according to court transcripts:
“We were almost to Casper. They were whispering, talking up front. And I confronted them about it. And they started tripping on me, asking why I was acting like a cop and such. I just wanted to get out of the car, and they wouldn’t let me out, so I got my gun out and pointed it at Kam’s head. Kam’s like: ‘Oh yeah, you think that f—ing scares me?’ He went for his gun he had under his leg. I pulled the trigger.” Luke Thomas Young, according to the Natrona County District Court reporter transcript.
Young-Johnson was shot once in the back of the head, Itzen said. Colvin then pulled the vehicle over, got out and screamed, according to the witness on the motorcycle.
Young subsequently got out of the car and pointed the gun at the witness. In fear for his life, the witness sped away and called authorities, hearing the six shots that killed Colvin.
Young was captured the following afternoon. Investigators had found his driver’s license in the car.
The mothers of the two victims, as well as Colvin’s younger sister, addressed the court.
“He killed half of me: my soul,” Young-Johnson’s mother Anette said. “I would say I forgive you, but I can’t.”
Colvin’s younger sister Tatem recalled Acacia as a woman who “excelled in all she was taught.” She said Colvin was the mother of two boys, and a lover of painting and nature.
“You have no idea what it’s like walking past her room every day and it’s empty,” she said. “It still smells like her.”
Colvin’s mother Katherine also spoke.
“I believe you are drawn to killing. I believe it fascinates you,” she said. “You killed her because you are infused with evil.”
Two witnesses spoke about their understanding of Young’s life leading up to the homicide, having worked closely with him in their capacity as mitigation specialists with the Community Resource Initiative, a nonprofit specializing is death penalty defense.
One, Kyle Earley, said that the Department of Justice had a metric for identifying common factors in the lives of people who go on to commit violent crimes. He said Young’s biography hit “100%” of the risk factors, including childhood physical and sexual trauma, abuse and neglect, all of them chronic.
Earley said Young had been removed from the custody of his biological parents at 16 months of age and spent the remainder of his childhood under state custody and foster care. Another specialist, Harriet Storm, said Young had thrived intermittently in certain structured environments, but things had taken a turn for the worse when he was released from state supervision with few real-world skills, and he turned to drugs and alcohol.
In his brief address to the court before Eames rendered the sentence, Itzen invoked a narrower scope of accountability. “This is not a failure of DFS. This is the result of him putting a gun in his hand. Accountability comes from within, Judge.”
Judge Eames echoed the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office in arriving at a single word to describe the case: “senseless.”
“Drugs are a component of the violence that pervasively follows. This senseless and tragic crime was an influence of anger by drugs that are tearing apart our community. Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of the victims in this case.
Natrona County Law Enforcement is working together relentlessly to find the individuals who bring drugs into our County and to show them that they have nowhere to hide here. Natrona County Sheriff’s Office
During her statement, Colvin’s mother spoke. “Vengeance is in the hands of the Lord,” she said. “May you receive your punishment through him, Lucas Young.”
