Courthouse tirade gets prison sentence nearly tripled
WEST POINT – A West Point man discovered the high price of “acting a fool” within earshot of a circuit judge.
Just moments after being sentenced to serve 25 years for attempted murder and attempted kidnapping last week, Amonty Young was called back before Circuit Judge James Kitchens and sentenced to 70 years in prison.
Young, 37, of West Point, was accused of stabbing a woman, trying to kidnap her by forcing her into her own car and then stealing her car when she refused. He was arrested the same day in January 2022. About a week later, officials discovered Young was in possession of marijuana at the Clay County Jail.
He admitted he attacked the victim and agreed to plead guilty to the attempted murder and an attempted kidnapping. In exchange for the plea, the state would drop the car theft and contraband inside a correctional facility charges. The July 19 sentencing hearing proceeded as expected.
Judge Kitchens sentenced Young to 30 years on the attempted murder, suspending five years. The attempted kidnapping brought a second sentence of 10 years. Since the orders did not say the sentences should be consecutive, they would run concurrently, meaning Young would only serve 25 years.
The problem began shortly after the sentencing when Young was taken to a holding cell at the Clay County Justice Complex.
“He just acted a fool. He started cursing and hollering,” said Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott. “I headed back there to tell him to be quiet but the judge had already heard the commotion from his chambers and ordered (Young) back to court.”
Judge Kitchens then issued new sentencing orders, complete with handwritten notes explaining that the sentences were changed to 40 years and 30 years “because of Young’s behavior immediately after this court sentenced him.”
“The court finds that Young is a special danger to the community and should receive the maximum sentence,” Kitchens said.
The judge also ordered that the sentences should run consecutive, so Young will now be serving 70 years in a state prison. He was turned over to the Mississippi Department of Corrections that day and transferred to the Central Mississippi Correctional facility in Rankin County to begin serving his sentence.
Young is no stranger to law enforcement in Clay County. Over the last two decades, he has been charged with two commercial burglaries, two car thefts, felony fleeing in a stolen 1986 Chevy Cavalier, forgery, escaping jail twice and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
In the second jail escape in 2011, Young reportedly cut out a section of razor wire atop the prisoner yard’s interior fence. He squirmed through the opening, scaled a gate and a barbed wire fence.
He was returned to jail and later sentenced. Young was released by the Mississippi Department of Corrections in June 2021 and apparently stayed out of trouble with the law until the following January.
