Suspect swaps pleas in LeRoy shooting, to be sentenced in Jan.

Published 11:30 am Friday, December 14, 2012

A LeRoy woman charged for shooting at a building she thought her daughter was in swapped her pleas Thursday in Mower County Court.

Marina Cathlina Young, 35, who pleaded guilty to felony drive-by shooting with a dangerous weapon in July, has withdrawn that plea and instead pleaded guilty to her other charge: discharge of dangerous weapon within a municipality.

Police dispatched to LeRoy for a runaway child on March 16, according to the court complaint. Young told officers she had not seen her daughter since 4 p.m. the previous day and that she could be hiding in a vacant building.

Email newsletter signup

Officers spoke with a man working on top of a grain bin who said he saw a woman fire three to four shots at a nearby building that morning, according to the court complaint. The man watched the woman, later identified as Young, shoot the lock on the building door.

According to the witness, Young said, “If you’re in there, you’re dead.” The witness also watched Young return the gun to her car and then enter the building with two of her other children.

The officer spoke with Young at her home — near the building — and according to the complaint, Young said she believed her daughter was “dead or frozen” inside the building, so she fired shots at the door using a .22 caliber rifle and used a sledgehammer to break inside.

The child was later found unharmed and returned to school that day.

Young will be sentenced on Jan. 17.