Cape man accused of killing wife takes stand in trial

FORT MYERS, Fla.- A Cape Coral man accused of brutally murdering his wife took the stand Wednesday, saying he gunned down his wife because she was leaving him.

Michael Young claims he had no control over his mind or body the night of December 14, 2013.

“It was like I was sitting in the back just watching the whole thing happen,” Young testified.

Young says he snapped and killed his wife, Sally Young, because she was going to let a convicted sex offender, a friend of the couple who they’d both had a sexual relationship with, live in their home with their 9-year-old son.

“Shotgun leaning against the wall, I grabbed it,” Young recalled. “Started grabbing shells and just throwing them into the shotgun… Put one shell in, pulled it forward, squeezed the trigger.”

Young says he shot his wife several times, then turned the gun on himself.

The day before the murder, Young claims his wife told him she was leaving him and he was worried about their son.

“I said ‘could you please just make sure this guy doesn’t come in the house when Benjamin is here,'” Young described. “She got real upset, sat up on the bed starting screaming at me and everything, telling me I didn’t have that right anymore, I couldn’t tell her what to do.”

A prosecutor pointed out, before the day of the murder, Young hadn’t showed concern about the couple’s friend.

“You let him come back into the house once you knew he was a sexual predator,” the prosecutor said.

The state also pointed out Young told police he killed his wife because she had cheated on him.

In opening statements, the defense argued insanity, claiming Young committed the murder because he was intoxicated from testosterone injections.

Witness testimony will resume Thursday morning.