The Virginia mother sentenced to nearly 80 years in prison for shooting and killing her two daughters after giving them melatonin gummies killed them when she could no longer use the girls as “leverage” over her ex-husband, she said Saturday.
Ron Youngblood, whose ex-wife Veronica Youngblood was sentenced to 78 years behind bars on Friday for killing Brooklynn Youngblood, 5, and Sharon Castro, 15, five years ago, said the deranged slayings had been a last-ditch effort to inflict pain on him.
“Those girls were leverage for her, leverage to get what she wanted from me,” the 52-year-old former Navy veteran solemnly told the Post.
“She obviously knew those girls were the most important things in my life.”
As of August 2018, the Youngbloods were living in Virginia and were ready to move to Missouri along with their daughters.
Veronica Youngblood reneged on her move at the last minute and said she wanted to stay in the Old Dominion State with the girls, but a judge determined that Brooklynn, Ron’s only biological daughter, could still move to Missouri with him, she said.
Ron Youngblood said his ex-wife Veronica would use their daughters as leverage in their relationship. Provided by Ron Youngblood
“When the judge made the decision that I could go with Brooklynn, she saw that she had no more tools to use against me, so she decided to get rid of them,” he added.
In a twisted act of revenge, Veronica Youngblood shot the girls to death as they slept in her McLean apartment after sedating them on August 5.
Brooklynn, who was shot in the head, died at the scene. Sharon, who was hit in the chest and back, later died in hospital.
The teenager managed to call 911 to inform the operator that her sick mother was the one who fired the shot.
After hearing his call during the two-week trial, jurors were so traumatized that they asked if they could receive therapy.
Veronica Youngblood was sentenced to 78 years in prison for killing her two daughters.AP
As her eldest daughter lay dying, Veronica Youngblood called her ex-husband to tell him she hated him and that he had shot her children.
“She could do the only thing that could really hurt me and she had been trying for years and was unsuccessful until she murdered my daughters,” Ron Youngblood said, adding that he had no idea that his ex, who bought the firearm , nine days before the shocking murders, would kill his daughters.
“I wouldn’t let it go that she would try to do something to me, but I never thought she would have done anything to the girls.”
Ron Youngblood believed his ex killed his daughters because he felt she could no longer use them as a means of controlling him after he planned to move in with them. Provided by Ron Youngblood
Sharon, 15, called 911 to tell the operator that her mother pulled the trigger. Fairfax County Circuit Court
In March, Veronica Youngblood was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of felony use of a firearm.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and his lawyer claimed that the Argentine heard voices, but the defense was rejected.
During the sentencing, the jury heard testimony that the murderous mother grew up in poverty, had been physically and sexually abused as a child and turned to sex work to care for her eldest daughter.
Ron Youngblood said he had faith the judge would impose that maximum sentence, but even with his ex spending the rest of his days rotting in prison, he will always mourn his daughters.
“They weren’t the most important things in my life: they were my life. That was all I really cared about. When she took that away from me, it’s something I’ll never get back.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn