Deputy Younkin

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Deputy Younkin

He is currently (4/2023) a supervisor for the patrol division; in 2020 he was a patrol deputy. He responds to calls for service, traffic enforcement, and investigates patrol related crimes.

January 27, 2020 Bodycam (Exhibit 210)

On January 27th 2020, he responded to call of a runaway juvenile on Manden Drive.
He wore a body camera on his chest; it doesn't see if his head turns, his body has to turn for it to see something.
Two primary deputies were conducting a primary interview on scene, the house hadn't been searched. He began to search the residence for Gannon in case he was hiding.
They play the bodycam footage but only a corner is visible.

Letecia said she took the covers he was laying on and threw it on the fire, got her daughter and the dogs out.
He didn't take his bike; deputies said someone saw a kid on a bike.
"unless he took it earlier and then brought it back cause Laina ended up with the bike".
[Long break in intelligible audio].
There were boxcutters somewhere, she's in the room that the candle video happened in. She's being pretty jovial.
Connor's mom came over, a bunch of people came over.
Letecia is a 5th grade teacher.
No clothes are missing. She lays out clothes every day. She says he had on a jacket. She points out he didn't take anything, not even his favorites.
She says she doesn't have numbers of all Gannon's friends because she's not the one who talks to the parents and says yes or no, Al does.
She doesn't know who the friend with the older sibling is and they don't know their names.
Letecia says he took his Switch in a blue or red case. She says some lady online messaged them with a picture of Gannon from somewhere around local and you can see his Switch with him.
Letecia says she has 150 Facebook messages she hasn't checked so she can't find the message but it was on the Lorson Ranch page.
Al gave the neighbor permission to post the footage of Gannon(unclear).
"There's a weird text the dad got, something about bath salts and my friend will let you play Sonic at his house".
She says he was wearing a blue jacket and jeans.
Letecia was thinking he may have gone to a basketball game.
Letecia says to call Al because she "doesn't do a lot of that" i.e. talking to people.

Testimony About Exhibit 210

The witness is asked to compare Letecia's demeanor to the demeanor of other people who he encounters on runaway calls; he says normal, similar.
Witness points out Letecia as the defendant and who he is talking about.
While there, Letecia did not identify by any other name or alias.
Her demeanor was calm, it did not change.
No men that were not law enforcement were observed at the residence; based on all the areas he searched he believes he would have seen an unknown male.
Sometimes when children are called in as runaways they're really hiding, sometimes afraid to get in trouble.
He also went into the basement storage room. He moved a pillow and a chair but there was a big pile of boxes in the middle of the room he didn't move.
Exhibit 310 - 315 are still images from the bodycam.
E310 is the boxes in the storage room.
E311 is a clearer shot of the same.
E312 is more boxes; he didn't move them.
E313 is the same view just slightly to the left.
E314 is a closer view of the pile of boxes.
E315 is a picture of the floor by the door(?).
Letecia did not direct him where to search.
He didn't see anything under the stairs.
Letecia does not have pervasive mental disease or defect based on her behavior that day.
No shell casings were found; no obvious signs of a struggle; no blood.

Juror questions:

Who was the first person to describe Gannon as a runaway? Letecia when she made the call.
Were there any unusual scents or smells in Gannon's room particularly under the bed? No, he did not detect anything.
Did you see any large suitcases Yes, based on body-worn camera. He does not recall, only watching the footage does he see suitcases.

Defense followup:

Were there any cleaning odors like bleach or just crisp and clean? No.