People who grew up with Deven Young describe the 17-year-old, who is accused of killing a paddleboarder earlier this month, in drastically different ways.
One best friend from childhood told the Bangor Daily News that he never saw Young bully people, while another said Young would bully kids since preschool. Two people who know him said he would regularly get in trouble for fighting.
Young, of Frankfort, is charged as a juvenile in Knox County with intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder. The Office of the Maine Attorney General has filed a motion for Young to be tried as an adult.
He is accused of killing Sunshine “Sunny” Stewart, 48. She went paddleboarding the evening of July 2 on Crawford Pond in Union. She failed to return and was reported missing. Her body was found July 3 on 100-Acre Island within the pond.
Jaxon Mushero, 18, said that he met Young in third grade at the Leroy H. Smith School in Winterport. The pair became friends and would spend time together playing outside, Mushero said.
The two talked on the phone in June and Young seemed a little off, but not to a concerning degree, Mushero said. Young talked about catching some squirrels. Hunting and being outdoors are things Young has always enjoyed, Mushero said.
“Just finding out, seeing that just shocks me,” Mushero said. “It really does. That was my childhood best friend. I grew up with him.”
A woman who answered the phone number listed for Tara Young said the reporter had the wrong number. Deven Young’s defense attorney, Jeremy Pratt, said he has no comment on the case at this time.
Two other people who know Young said, in separate interviews, that he would regularly get in trouble for fighting at school. One person, a former classmate, said Young would bully other students, leading to repercussions at school, she said.
Both declined to be named because they are still acquaintances with the Young family.
Mushero said he never saw Young bully anyone.
In the days after Stewart’s death, Young never acted suspiciously, Mic Mac Cove Family Campground owner Katharine Lunt told the Midcoast Villager. He assisted other campers with loose pets and yard work, she said.
On Wednesday, the day Young was arrested, he approached Maine State Police and said he had information related to the case, Lunt said. He took them to 100-Acre Island in Crawford Pond, but to the opposite end of where Stewart’s body was found.
After returning to the campground, police interviewed Young more, then left and returned that evening, when they interviewed him for another two hours and then arrested him, Lunt told the Villager.
On July 12, nine days after Stewart was found dead, Young posted — on a now-deleted Facebook page — a photo of a lobster boat at sunset. Someone in the comments asked how he was doing, to which he replied “I’m doing good how are you doing.”
At his first court appearance Friday at the Knox County courthouse in Rockland, Young’s attorney, Pratt, asked judge Eric Walker for a closed hearing, which was denied, according to the Midcoast Villager.
But police affidavits in the case will remain sealed for now. Young, who appeared in court via Zoom, denied the charge against him Friday, the Villager reported.
A bind-over hearing will be scheduled where the judge will determine if Young will be tried as an adult. At that hearing, the judge will consider “testimony as to the seriousness of the offense, various evaluations, and whether the current juvenile system can provide necessary services to the juvenile,” Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy said.
If the case stays in juvenile court and Young is convicted, his sentence cannot exceed his 21st birthday. If the case goes to adult court and Young is convicted, a sentence starts at a minimum of 25 years of imprisonment, under Maine law.
Young was ordered to continue to be detained at Long Creek Youth Correctional Facility in South Portland. He’s scheduled to appear in court again on Aug. 22.