Teen convicted in fatal shooting
Jay
By David Olinger
Denver Post Staff Writer
Jan. 8 - The Denver teenager who fired two bullets from a pistol into
the head and chest of Chris Mains was found guilty of murder Friday.
But the jury tempered its verdict by concluding that Thomas Young, 19,
acted in the "heat of passion," using a gun to defend his roommate
during a fistfight last January.
Several of Mains' relatives and friends wept quietly in the courtroom as
the verdict was read. Outside, they questioned why both of the men
involved in killing a young man they loved can look forward to prison
release dates.
"The only one who got life in this murder case is Chris," said his
father, Stephen Mains.
Young, an orphan raised in foster homes, was awaiting sentencing for a
knife attack on another man when he shot Chris Mains. Friday's
second-degree murder verdict carries a possible sentence of 10 to 32
years in prison.
Young did not testify at his murder trial, and he left in handcuffs, not
looking up even when a friend called out, "Tom, I love you." But Evans
Garcia, Young's lawyer, said his client was relieved to be spared a
first-degree murder verdict and had faced the jury expecting to be found
guilty of a serious crime. "He said, "I should get some time for this,'
" Garcia said.
The 9mm pistol used to kill Chris Mains was one of nearly 100 that The
Denver Post traced from multiple handgun purchases to Colorado crime
scenes. Most were cheap handguns, barred from sale as "Saturday night
specials" in more than 40 California cities and counties, The Post
reported in a series last month.
In this case, the murder weapon seized by Denver police was one of two
Bryco pistols bought 17 months earlier at a Denver gun shop by a man who
passed a criminal background check. It was taken from the house Young
shared with Brian Everton, also a convicted felon.
Everton, an old friend and former roommate of Chris Mains, has been
sentenced to nine years in prison for menacing Mains with a gun and for
possessing methamphetamine. At Young's trial, Everton testified that
Mains had come to his house to buy drugs, that an argument ensued,
escalated into a fistfight, then ended when Young came to his aid by
shooting Mains.
He also testified that the handgun had been left at his house by a
friend who lived next door, and he had stored it in a drawer.
Chris Mains, 26, ran a small concrete business with his father. Stephen
Mains testified that Everton had paged his son a few hours before Chris
was murdered in Everton's home. The coroner found Mains had consumed
enough alcohol to be intoxicated at the time of his death, but there was
no evidence of illegal drugs in his system.
Prosecutors questioned the credibility of Everton's account and noted
that Young, who initially claimed he fired a warning shot, had actually
shot Mains twice - once in the chest, once in the left temple.
They asked for a first-degree murder verdict. Mains, unarmed, went to
the house on South Clay Street "to visit a friend," prosecutor Henry
Cooper told the jury. "He went there with no bad intentions. He left in
a coroner's van."
Young is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.