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UTAH STATE PRISON — A woman raped 20 years ago near the University of Utah pleaded with the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday to keep her attacker in prison.
"Please don't schedule any more hearings and please impose a life sentence," the woman asked board member Cathy Crawford, who conducted the hearing.
She said she was still traumatized from the violent attack in 1996 and was extremely nervous just to attend the parole hearing for Donald Eugene Younge, a man who was also once charged with capital murder in the stabbing death of a U. student.
Younge, however, told Crawford with little emotion that he did not remember raping the woman.
"I don't actually remember the incident because it was 20 years ago. But reading through the information, I know that what I did was wrong," he said in an audio recording of the hearing.
Younge, 50, was convicted in 2009 of two counts of aggravated sexual assault and robbery. His combined sentences equated to 31 years to life in prison.
In 1996, the woman, then a 23-year-old U. student, was walking home from class when she was grabbed from behind by Younge, forced into a dark alley, beaten and raped. She went to a hospital that night where a DNA sample was collected.
For years, Younge was only known as a DNA profile marked as "John Doe, unknown male." The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office charged the unknown man with rape in 2000 based only on the DNA evidence in order to avoid having the statute of limitations expire.
In 2002, a DNA database matched that profile to Younge. At that time, Younge was in an Illinois jail for investigation of raping one woman, and he was a suspect in the murders of three prostitutes in St. Louis.
But the Illinois case fell through. And when the charges were dropped in 2009, Younge was extradited back to Utah to stand trial. In 2013, the Utah Supreme Court upheld his conviction. Younge had argued that the statute of limitations had expired by the time he was put on trial in Utah.
His first parole hearing was Tuesday. The full five-member board now has the option of scheduling another parole hearing, or to declare that Younge will serve his full life sentence.
"I'm terrified about being here. But I needed to be here to tell you in person how important it is to me, for you to impose the maximum life sentence," the woman said. "There are so many victims whose lives were brutally stolen from them. And there are victims like me who somehow managed to survive.
"I am still impacted by what happened. I still have nightmares. I still have PTSD. I still get scared by sudden movements and certain sounds. I continually work at managing my fear level so I can have a normal life," she said.
Even after Younge was convicted, prosecutors say he refused to admit he was responsible. On Tuesday, Younge admitted to Crawford that he was responsible for violently attacking the woman.
"It's accurate," he replied after a summary of the incident was read.
But despite admitting to the crime, Younge claimed he didn't actually remember it.
"I remember me going out that night, and I remember me coming home. And when I got home, I remember waking up in the hospital."
When Crawford asked why he was in the hospital, Younge said, "They said that I had some kind of amnesia or something to that effect."
When Crawford pressed Younge about why he did what he did, he stated, "At the time, I was going through mental problems," adding that he has never been diagnosed by a doctor with a mental illness.
"I don't understand why I did what I did. I just know that it happened and what I did was absolutely wrong," he said.
When asked if he had any final words for the board to consider, Younge attempted to correct the woman by saying: "I only have one victim."
Younge was also charged at one time with the 1999 stabbing death of U. theater student Amy Quinton, 22, in her Salt Lake apartment. It was a capital murder case for which prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty. In 2012, prosecutors were forced to dismiss the case due to evidentiary concerns. But Quinton's mother told reporters she was convinced that Younge was responsible for her daughter's death.
At Tuesday's hearing, Crawford said it would be up to the full board to decide if Younge should get another parole hearing. But she also told him, "In a case as serious as this, I'm not sure the board will go for another hearing or not. If they (do), it will be many years down the road.
"I do fully expect you to serve a considerable amount of time," she said.
