Thursday, November 20, 1997

11201997 - Detroit Firefighter Ardra Young - Sentenced To Life - Murder Wife Terri And Son Emmanuel















On February 7, 1997, Detroit Firefighter Ardra Young, who also owned a truck business, went to Bolingbrook Illinois to purchase vehicles for his business.

On the evening of February 8th, Young claimed to be ill during a business dinner. He returned to his hotel room and claimed he passed out and did not wake up until approximately 3a.m.. It was when he called home at 3 a.m. and spoke with his brother, that he learned that his ex-wife Terri and teenage son Emmanuel had been shot. He was informed that his ex-wife had died and although his son had survived, he was on life support.

Young immediately left Illinois and drove home to Detroit. At the hospital, Young ordered that his son be removed from life support. Young was allowed to sign the form to have life support disconnected for Emmanuel, who died shortly after life support was removed.

On February 9th, Firefighter Young confessed to killing his wife and teenage son. According to Young, after excusing himself from the business dinner on Saturday evening, he did not return to his room. Instead he drove to Detroit and arrived at approximately 9:30pm. From a phone booth, Young called his wife to meet him in Detroit. When his wife and son arrived, he shot and killed them both. He flattened one of the tires on his wife's car and threw the contents of her purse around to make it appear as though his wife and son were robbed and killed after their car broke down. Young then drove back to Bolingbrook Illinois.

During his confession, Young claimed to police that he had killed his family, "To be free..."

Young was convicted by a jury of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of felony- firearm in the shooting deaths of his wife Terri and son Emmanuel.

In November 1998, Young was sentenced to concurrent terms of life imprisonment and to consecutive two-year terms for felony firearm.













1 CHARGED IN DEATHS OF WIFE, SON
South Bend Tribune (IN)
February 12, 1997 
Detroit - A former Detroit firefighter was charged with killing his wife and teen-age son.

Ardra Young, 34, was arraigned Monday on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Terri Young, 34, and Emmanuel Young, 14.

Young arranged a meeting Saturday evening with his wife of 14 years at a park near their home in Wayne County's Redford Township, police said. Terri Young insisted that Emmanuel accompany them to the park - where Ardra Young allegedly shot them both.

Young returned to his home, washed his bloodstained clothes and drove to the home of a female acquaintance in Illinois, investigators said. He returned to Detroit early Sunday, ordering doctors at Grace Hospital to turn off his son's life-support system, police said.

Young then went to Detroit police headquarters, where investigators said he described his role in the shootings.

Young, a firefighter for seven years, resigned Monday. He is jailed without bond.













Hate letters stir Detroit Fire Dept.
Newswire - UPI (USA)
January 30, 1998 
The Detroit Fire Department is on edge while the FBI investigates hate letters that claim white firefighters are ready to kill black colleagues and their families. Fire Commissioner James Bush says he's taking the threats from an unknown group called the White Fire Fighters Association 'very, very seriously.'

However, Bush is declining comment about one letter that allegedly ties the mysterious group to the shooting deaths of a black firefighter's wife and son last year. The firefighter, Ardra Young, was later dismissed and convicted on two murder counts, for which he's now serving life in prison. The letter's claim that the killings were racially motivated to punish Young has prompted his lawyer to plan an appeal. In an interview with UPI today, Bush implied that one distraught firefighter may be responsible for the letters threatening harm to any black firefighters who harass whites. At least four letters were sent in recent weeks to fire officials and the mayor's office. Bush says, 'We're a family here and when there's a member who needs guidance we all try to help.' About two-thirds of the city's 1,400 firefighters are black. Bush says the department's blacks and whites 'have a good relationship. We work very well together.' The FBI is working with Detroit police on the investigation. There've been no arrests. ---








































January 05, 1998:
Ardra Young filed an appeal on his conviction for his wife's and son's murders. On March 14, 2000, Young's conviction was confirmed.













March 14, 2000:
Michigan Court Of Appeals Affirmed Ardra Young's conviction




















March 15, 2001
Ardra Young filed a Petition For Writ Of Habeas Corpus with the Michigan US District Court















November 14, 2004:
Michigan US District Court denied Ardra Young's Petition For Writ Of Habeas Corpus

Saturday, November 1, 1997

11011997 - Magistrate Jeff Gagie - DV Charges Dropped - Kalamazoo County




Voters to choose two District Court candidates
Posted by Lynn Turner
Kalamazoo Gazette
July 08, 2008 09:51AM
http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/07/voters_to_choose_two_district.html

Four attorneys vie in primary to replace Judge Benson

KALAMAZOO -- With four attorneys running for one vacant District Court judicial seat, Kalamazoo County voters will decide Aug. 5 which two candidates will face each other in the November election.

And for the first time since the law was changed last year, all Kalamazoo County voters will be allowed to cast ballots in the races to replace 8th District Judge Quinn E. Benson.

Benson, 71, is prohibiting from seeking re-election under a state law that bars judges from running again after their 70th birthday.

The candidates vying to replace him -- Jeff M. Gagie, William K. Murphy, Sondra G. Nowak and Julie K. Phillips -- have varying levels of experience as lawyers and different areas of expertise. They all cite a desire to serve their community as a main reason for running for the seat.

The winner of the non-partisan position gets a six-year term on the bench, annual salary of $138,272 and a black robe.

District Court, also known as the "people's court," handles criminal misdemeanors that don't result in jail sentences of more than one year, arraignments, some sentencings, bail levels and preliminary examinations for felony cases. On the civil side, litigation of up to $25,000 is heard.

Garnishments, evictions and land contract forfeitures are also handled in District Court.

Because judicial candidates may have to rule on various issues if elected, they cannot make known their personal feelings on issues or say how they may rule.

The candidates:

Jeff M. Gagie
Jeff M. Gagie, 45, touts his experience as a criminal-defense attorney as one of top reasons voters should elect him to the bench.

"I think I have good experience, unique experiences ... and more of a criminal defense background" than the other candidates," Gagie said.

Gagie has been an attorney for 14 years, and about 50 percent of his practice is criminal defense, he said. Much of his work has been in Van Buren County until joining the roster of attorneys who represent indigent defendants in Kalamazoo County in 2007.

Gagie ran four years ago and lost to incumbent District Judge Carol A. Husum.

Now, as then, Gagie said he knows some people question his ability to be a judge because he was arrested in 1997 on a charge of domestic violence. The charges were dropped 10 months later, according to court records.

Gagie said he and his wife were having marital problems at the time. She had filed for divorce. He had filed for legal separation. He maintains she hit herself in the head with a plastic box and tore her own collar.

Gagie was arrested just hours after being sworn in as a Kalamazoo County District Court magistrate, he said. Gagie spent the night in jail, was arraigned the next day and fired the following morning.

"I never beat my wife," Gagie said. "Some people are going to think I'm a wife beater whether I run or not."

The couple was divorced in October 1998. He has custody of their two children.