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‘You, Richard Joseph, are a murderer.’

Greg Sowinski
Lima News
6/7/07

LIMA — Sharon and Rick Young told their son’s killer Wednesday the justice system failed them and he should have been executed.

“You were indicted, convicted by a jury of your peers and sent to death row where you should have died many years ago,” Sharon Young said Wednesday during the resentencing of Richard Joseph for the 1990 murder of their 16-year-old son, Ryan Young.

She then criticized the law and justice system for his second chance.

“The justice system has failed us and given you, a convicted murderer, another chance in life. Where does the system give Ryan another chance? You did not and neither did the justice system,” she said as she held her husband’s arm while both of them choked back tears.

Joseph stared downward at the table in front of him as Sharon Young spoke and never once looked at them.

“We do not hate you, Richard. We hate what you chose to do with your life and to our son. Now God will be your jury and your judge,” she said.

Sharon Young also spoke of the pain her family has endured during the past 17 years.

“We now stand before you, Richard Joseph, to let you know the depth of the terrible pain, the sleepless nights and the tears you have inflicted on us,” she said.

Without looking at the Youngs, the 36-year-old Joseph spoke briefly saying, “I’m deeply sorry.”

Visiting Judge Randall Basinger of Putnam County, who was the trial judge 16 years ago, told Joseph he had no doubt about his role in the crime.

“You, Richard Joseph, are a murderer, who after 17 years to reflect, still do not stand in this court acknowledging your responsibility or indicating remorse,” Basinger said.

Basinger said the reversal of the death sentence was made in the federal court system based on the question of whether he was the principal player in the death of Ryan Young, a Bath High School student.

“It was my view, and it continues to be my view, that you clearly were the principal offender. Sixteen years after the trial, the federal habeas system has saved you from execution. It has not saved you from condemnation of this court,” Basinger said.

The judge said he would do everything in his power to make sure Joseph stays in prison.

“You are not fit to live in a free society and I will make every effort, as judge, to make sure you are not granted parole at any time during your life,” Basinger said. “I regret that you will even be eligible for parole.”

After the hearing, Sharon Young said she was pleased Basinger delivered a powerful statement she hopes will keep Joseph behind bars forever. Rick Young said his family will try to get on with their lives while working to do their part to keep Joseph locked up.

Rick Young said he was not surprised Joseph didn’t have the courage to admit to killing his son and apologize.

“That’s what he was 17 years ago. He has not changed a lick,” Rick Young said.

The courtroom was packed with Young’s family. Joseph’s family, including his father and stepmother, sat behind him in the courtroom. He never acknowledged their presence and showed no emotion during the hearing.

Joseph’s attorneys fought to keep out a confession by Joseph and his co-defendant, Jose Bulerin, to the killing but the judge ruled Bulerin’s statement could become part of the record. Whatever Joseph told investigators about his role would remain sealed because of an earlier agreement that prompted Joseph to explain his role in the murder, which could not be used against him.

Joseph’s attorney, Edmund Searby, defended Joseph saying there was not enough evidence to show Joseph was the principal player in the killing.

“We do not know who killed Young,” he said.

Searby also called Joseph a boy, who was 19 at the time, and who never was in trouble with the law before this case.

“I can’t explain to this court why this senseless crime occurred,” Searby said.

Although he was sentenced to life in prison, Joseph will be eligible for parole after serving three more years. Joseph, and Bulerin kidnapped Ryan Young in 1990 as Young left his girlfriend’s home. They took him to an Auglaize County gravel pit where they stabbed him to death and buried his body in a shallow grave.

The motive for the killing was over a girl Young was dating whom Joseph previously dated.

Joseph spent more than 16 years on Ohio’s death row awaiting execution before his death sentence was overturned in the federal court system. In 2004, U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells of Cleveland overturned the death sentence saying there were misplaced words in the indictment.

The original indictment against Joseph placed the phrase “principal player” before the charge of aggravated kidnapping instead of aggravated murder. The error was corrected before the case ever made it to trial. A panel at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Wells’ ruling, which prosecutors appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to consider the case.

[deb]

This is a crime in it self that a victim and his family have been put though such pain. The legal system needs to do more for the victim of crime than the killers. How wording ever took this killer off death row is just not understandable. We will all be ready to fight Ohio Parole Board in years to come. God Bless the Young family.