Man pleads guilty to killing coach
Young shaped basketball players into good men
The Milwaukee man accused of gunning down a beloved basketball coach in broad daylight last summer now admits he pulled the trigger.
Amardi Stotts pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree reckless homicide in connection with Dale Young’s July 7 slaying.
Prosecutors want Stotts to serve 23 to 25 years of initial confinement, but Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen R. Brostrom wouldn’t be bound to the state’s recommendation when she hands down a sentence April 1. The maximum is 60 years.
Jeradine Grayson wept as Stotts, 30, took responsibility for killing her son, who had developed a reputation for shaping young basketball players on Milwaukee’s north side into productive men.
She also watched as Stotts was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs by sheriff’s deputies; he posted a $75,000 bond in July, but Brostrom ordered him to be remanded into custody after he entered his plea.
Grayson was displeased with prosecutors’ decision to plead down the case, saying elements of the case warranted the maximum punishment.
“That’s not enough (prison) time,” Grayson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We didn’t want a plea. We wanted our day in court. We wanted everything that happened that day to come out.
“This case demands justice in the form of a trial.”
On July 7, officers were called to the 5700 block of North 69th Street about a shooting around 7 a.m.
They arrived to find Young’s stillrunning white Ford Econoline crashed into a parked vehicle and riddled with bullet holes.
Young was discovered lying in the roadway. He was taken to a hospital, but he died from his injuries.
Police got a neighbor’s doorbell video that captured footage of a red Dodge Ram truck with black rims pull alongside Young’s vehicle. Multiple gunshots were fired; an autopsy revealed Young had suffered 15 gunshot wounds.
Family members told the Journal Sentinel Young had been helping a niece move into an apartment. She was escaping what they say was an abusive relationship.
Young had gone back to the apartment that morning to retrieve tools. There, he encountered the niece’s former boyfriend. Young left the apartment and the niece told her ex in a cellphone conversation to not talk to Young.
Moments later, she heard gunshots outside, the criminal complaint said.
The niece told investigators the gunman was a co-worker who drove a similar pickup. She also identified him as the shooter in a photo array, according to the criminal complaint.