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11-01-2026, 04:22 PM
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Tia Young Questioned in George Young's Killing
Tia Young was convicted of felony murder in the shooting death of her husband, George Young, in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole plus three years for attempted tampering with evidence. George Young, 43, worked in security and lived in Buford with his wife, their three children and her mother. He hired family friend Harvey Timothy "Tim" Lee as a subcontractor and let him live in the family home. Tia Young was the primary beneficiary of a $1 million life insurance policy on her husband. Late on November 16, 2017, George Young returned from a security job and was shot twice on the front porch of the family's home on Montauk Hill Drive. Phone records showed he was speaking with a co-worker until 11:23 p.m. Tia Young called 911 at 11:31 p.m. Officers arrived at 11:40 p.m. and found him dead on his back, his keys still in the door. The .40-caliber handgun was never found. The front-door security camera was not working. A neighbor saw a person go from the house to a vehicle in the driveway less than ten minutes after the shots, then run back toward the house. Lee told officers at the scene he was at the kitchen table when he heard the shots. On November 17, 2017, he and Tia Young agreed to go to the station. Lee said he had been removing a tracking device he had placed under George Young's car. Text messages between the men contradicted his claim that George knew about it. Officers later seized the device from Lee's bedroom under a search warrant. That day, Tia Young notified the life insurance company of her husband's death and asked a friend to find and "get" her phone and Lee's. Lee's phone showed October 28, 2017 searches for poisonous snake or spider venom for sale. Her phone held a saved meme: "The fortuneteller says your husband will meet a violent end. The lady responds, will I be convicted?" Emails revealed an affair between her and Lee, which both denied until confronted with them. In the recorded questioning, before any arrest, a detective tells Tia Young that Lee has implicated her, saying the killing was her idea, for the insurance money and so Lee could take over George's job. The appeals opinions describe no such statement by Lee. She admits the affair and denies any part in the killing. On April 2, 2018, police brought both to Gwinnett County Police headquarters for further interviews. Lee was shown the emails and asked for a lawyer, ending his interview. Police said both denied involvement. Both were then jailed on charges of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. A Gwinnett County grand jury indicted both on June 27, 2018, for malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. Young was also indicted on two counts of attempted tampering with evidence, one to prevent Lee's apprehension and one to prevent her own. They were tried together before Judge Tracey Mason from March 25 through April 5, 2019. Prosecutors argued they conspired to kill George Young for the insurance money and to put Lee in charge of his security work. On April 5, 2019, the jury found Lee guilty of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. It found Young guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault and both tampering counts, and not guilty of malice murder. The court record dates the sentences April 15, 2019; news reports of the sentencing hearing are dated April 11. Lee received life without parole. Young received life with the possibility of parole for felony murder, plus two years and six months and six months for the tampering counts, served consecutively, three years in all. Her aggravated assault count merged. Sentencing coverage reported she would first be eligible for parole in 2049. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Lee's convictions on October 4, 2022, rejecting his claims that his trial lawyer was ineffective. It affirmed Young's convictions on November 29, 2022, finding the evidence sufficient, the denial of her motion to sever the trials proper and any error in the tampering instruction harmless.
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