A Fairfax County, Virginia, jury has recommended that a woman found guilty of shooting and killing her two daughters spend 78 years in prison.
Veronica Youngblood shot 5-year-old Brooklynn and 15-year-old Sharon in their McLean apartment in 2018 just days before Brooklynn was supposed to move to live with her father, prosecutors said.
The jury recommended a sentence of 36 years for each killing, totaling 78 years. A judge will decide Youngblood's sentence in September. The minimum sentence Youngblood could receive is 46 years.
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Sharon was still alive when police arrived, and that officer testified in the trial.
“She said her mom came into the room and said, ‘I’m gonna take you to see God,’ and then shot her,” the officer testified.
Youngblood was arrested after calling her ex-husband and leaving him a voicemail confessing and telling him she hated him.
In an interview with police in the hours after she shot her daughters, she referenced her plan to buy a gun and kill her daughters and herself.
The defense painted the father as abusive and controlling, partially why Youngblood was driven into major depressive disorder.
A doctor described Youngblood’s depressive psychosis, in which she claims she heard voices that told her to kill her kids and herself.
The jury was left to decide whether Youngblood was legally insane the moment she pulled the trigger. They found her guilty on both counts of murder and both counts of use of a firearm to commit a murder.
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