Jury recommends 78 years in prison for Virginia mom who killed her 2 kids

FAIRFAX, Va. — A Fairfax County jury recommended that a McLean woman convicted of shooting her two young daughters to death serves nearly 80 years behind bars. The jury made the recommendation in the penalty phase of the trial on Monday. 

Veronica Youngblood was found guilty last week of murdering her 15-year-old daughter, Sharon Castro, and 5-year-old daughter, Brooklynn Youngblood, inside their Fairfax County apartment in August 2018. The 37-year-old mother faced a maximum penalty of life in prison. On Monday, a jury recommended Youngblood serve 78 years in prison, serving 36 years for the murder of each child and a combined six years for the use of a firearm in each act.

The jury spent several days deliberating before arriving at a punishment for Youngblood. Prosecutors urged a maximum penalty of two life terms, one for each child. 

A juror leaving the courthouse Monday told WUSA9 Youngblood's upbringing was considered during the deliberation.

"It's very sad," the juror said. "What was the one thing in her life that would have made her have a different outcome?"

Youngblood told jurors she was sexually molested by her grandfather, beaten daily with branches, belts, and a broomstick by her father, and then abandoned by both her parents. She was forced into sex work as a teenager to feed her baby and support her younger sister.

On the day of the murders, Veronica Youngblood fed her daughters sleeping pill gummies, and then shot Brooklynn in the head and Sharon in the back and chest, with a handgun she'd bought days earlier. Sharon was able to call 911 and tell first responders her mother had shot her. She died at the hospital; Brooklynn was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Veronica Youngblood called her ex-husband after the shooting, leaving a message that she’d killed the girls and that she hated him. Ron Youngblood told jurors of his own pain, recalling how Brooklynn loved animals and how Sharon made him a Father’s Day collage that he still keeps as the screensaver on his phone.

Ron Youngblood said he built memorials for the girls both in Chantilly and in his hometown in Missouri. They’re inscribed, “children are true miracles.”

A judge will now consider the jury's recommendation at sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 22.