Coach’s family seeks charges against second man
They say fatal shooting wouldn’t have happened without his phone call
Jeradine Grayson wants charges to be brought against a man who she believes set the wheels in motion for the attack that ended her son’s life.
Grayson and other members of her family went to Milwaukee County District Attorney John T. Chisholm’s office Thursday to urge prosecutors to consider charging a second man in Dondale Young’s July 7 shooting death.
Last month, Amardi Stotts, 30, pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide for killing Young, a wellknown youth basketball coach who had a talent for finding diamonds in the rough on some of Milwaukee’s most unforgiving blacktops and turning them into productive men off the court.
Prosecutors believe Stotts shot Young and are recommending he serve 23 to 25 years of initial confinement. The maximum is 60 years. Stotts is scheduled to be sentenced April 1 by Circuit Judge Ellen R. Brostrom.
Meanwhile, Grayson and Young’s daughter don’t think the plea deal — brokered less than a year after Young’s death — does enough justice.
They met privately with Chisholm for about 35 minutes Thursday and said they pleaded with him to also hold accountable the man who allegedly contacted the gunman just before the shooting.
“We know the other young man pleaded guilty to killing my son, but he wasn’t alone,” said Grayson, of Milwaukee. “Had he not made the phone call to the (shooter), my son would still be alive.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel isn’t identifying the man because he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
The district attorney’s office didn’t immediately return a call asking about the case.
Here’s what happened July 7
Officers were called to the 5700 block of North 69th Street about a shooting around 7 a.m.
It was there that Young, family members say, was helping a niece move into an apartment. She was escaping what they described as an abusive relationship.
According to a criminal complaint, Young returned to the apartment that morning to retrieve tools, and encountered the niece’s former boyfriend. Young left the apartment, and the niece told her ex in a cellphone conversation not to talk to Young.
“Here is Mardi,” the boyfriend told the niece, just before putting the call on hold, the criminal complaint said. Moments later, she heard gunshots outside.
Young, 48, was later found outside, lying in the roadway. His white Ford Econoline had crashed into a parked vehicle. It had nearly a dozen bullet holes and its engine was still running.
“We need to know why this all happened,” Young’s daughter, Cashayla Needom, said.
Plea deal doesn’t sit well with grieving mother
Members of Young’s family criticized prosecutors for accepting a plea against Stotts. They wanted the case to go to trial, where they had hoped more details about Young’s death would emerge.
They say the last eight months have been a struggle without Young in their lives.
“We’re trying to manage. Putting one foot in front of the other” each day, Grayson said. “It’s difficult without him standing next to us.’”
“I don’t wish this (pain) on any mother. I don’t wish that any mother has to go through losing their child, and then having to deal with not being heard and charges not being appropriately set for the people involved.”