Don’t disrespect this lottery winners daughter, it may cost you your life!
Freddie Young, 63, won a share of the $46.5 million Michigan Mega Millions lottery jackpot in February, 2011 but just 18 months later his life would be flip turned upside down.
Life could not have been better for Young in 2011. He was part of a 13 person syndicate that won $29 million on the Michigan lottery with Young himself collecting his share of $1.6 million.
However, in July, 2012, Young would be found guilty of the second degree murder of Australian-born real estate developer Greg McNicol, 45, over an argument involving Young’s daughter not paying her rent.
The path to McNicol’s murder began when McNicol purchased a 10 apartment complex on the west side of Detroit for just $35,000. It was rat infested, in need of serious work and located in a rough area but McNicol was pleased with what he saw as a bargain.
RENTAL ISSUES
One of the tenants that moved into one of the apartments when McNicol began to let the apartments out was Ayana Young, daughter of the lottery winning Freddie. As time went by, it soon became clear that there were domestic problems and Ayana was unable to pay the rent. McNicol gave her a 30 day eviction notice twice such was the delay in her paying the rent due on the apartment.
Things came to a head when eye witness Thomas Benton, 18, recalled seeing Ayana confront McNicol at a barbecue McNicol was having with the tenants on 7th May, 2011.
Benton said “She slapped … him in the face. He kept politely asking her to leave his property.”
COLD BLOOD
McNicol is then alleged to have become agitated with Ayana’s behaviour and started to act disrespectfully to her. Benton said it was then just a short time after that Ayana’s father Freddie turned up in his car and fatally shot McNicol in the pelvic region.
Prosecutor Steve Kaplan said at Young’s trial “Young wasn’t happy with the way his daughter was being treated” and reacted by shooting Mr McNicol dead. It is a simple case. We know who did it: Freddie Young. It is not a whodunnit case.”
Another witness, property manager Karen James spoke about she had received a phone call from Freddie just weeks before the shooting took place saying that he would not allow for his daughter to be disrespected.
It took the jury only half an hour to decide on their verdict that was guilty and Freddie was sentenced to 90 years in jail for his crime. The jury made the decision after they were made to endure a tear-jerking testimony from McNicol’s widowed wife Katie and a terrible 911 call made by McNicol as he bled to death.
Other lottery winners have murdered for much more than a few missing rental payments. Sadly Ibi Roncaioli was murdered by her husband after squandering large amounts of their fortune and a similar fate occurred to Maria Lou Devrell, except it was her accountant who took her life.