A 24-year-old man with a history of violent crimes, Divaunte Kartrell Young, has been sentenced to 180 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release after a federal jury found him guilty of illegal firearm possession, according to a recent report from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Young faced charges stemming from an incident in which he threatened a Rochester woman with a gun after she had spent the day driving him around, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office announcement, and the situation escalated when the victim refused his demand for a further drive from Rochester to the Twin Cities, prompting Young to reveal a gun and threaten her life, saying things like, “what if I shot your brain” at which point the victim, understandably terrified, managed to escape and called the police leaving Young asleep in her car where he was later arrested.
The search of the vehicle led to the discovery of a black and silver Taurus nine-millimeter handgun in Young's cross-body bag. While being detained, Young compounded his legal troubles by attempting to obstruct justice—he made calls from jail instructing the victim to lie about the events, and when she refused his offers to lie, he then tried to bribe her.
With a record that includes felony convictions for domestic assault, aggravated robbery, burglary, and assaulting a corrections officer, Young's sentencing on March 26, 2025, followed a trial that resulted in his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, which was a clear violation given his status as a probation absconder from four separate cases, United States District Judge Eric C. Tostrud gave Young the maximum sentence of 15 years of imprisonment after describing the defendant as "a great danger to the public" who "had no respect for the law," as detailed in the U.S Attorney's Office announcement.
The office of Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson has hailed the victim for her courage in this case, and the conviction is a collaborative effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Rochester Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Evan B. Gilead, David B. Green, and Ruth S. Shnider overseeing the prosecution; as Acting U.S. Attorney Thompson put it, “Acts of violence and corruption like this will always end the same way—with years in federal prison.”
