The Minnesota Court of Appeals has confirmed the sentence for Corey Devon Young in the 2022 murder of Xzavier Louis Aubid-St. Clair, as reported by Duluth News Tribune. Young, who was 19 years old at the time of sentencing, received a 27 ½-year prison term after being convicted of intentional second-degree murder in a June 2024 trial. The shooting occurred during an altercation on July 2, 2022, where it is alleged that Aubid-St. Clair and three other teenagers confronted Young about a suspected theft.
According to footage reviewed by authorities, the incident, which took place near East 1st St in Duluth, showed Young pulling a gun from a fanny pack and shooting Aubid-St. Clair in the face without warning. This detail was confirmed by FOX21 Online, which noted that the victim "immediately falls to the ground" after being shot. Despite claims of self-defense and stating that the shooting was not intentional, Young was found guilty by a jury in early 2024 and, consequently has been held at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud.
During the appeal process, Young's defense argued that the jury instructions were improper, suggesting that the judge presiding over the original trial had instructed the jurors to consider the charge of unintentional murder only if they first found Young not guilty of the intentional charge. However, the three-judge panel from the appeals court disagreed, stating, as Duluth News Tribune reported, "the court did not specify the order in which the jury should consider the offenses." The judges reinforced that the jury was "free to consider the instructions in any order that you wish."
The affirmation of Young's conviction by the appeals court underlines the conclusion that the due process of law was adequately followed. Now serving time at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Rush City, Young's prison records indicate he will become eligible for supervised release in October 2040. His journey through the criminal justice system, punctuated by a tragic loss of life, adds another somber chapter to the ledger of youth violence affecting communities across the nation.
