Men Get Life Behind Bars In Torture, Murder Of Westland Teens

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Two men convicted in the 2012 slayings of two metro Detroit teens who authorities say went into the city to buy drugs have been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Fredrick Young, 26, and Felando Hunter, 24, received the mandatory terms for the murder convictions on Wednesday in Detroit.

They were convicted in December of first-degree murder, torture and armed robbery in the deaths of 17-year-old Jourdan Bobbish and 18-year-old Jacob Kudla of Westland.

Family members delivered moving impact statements before the sentences were handed down.

Virgie Kudla told her son's killer that he "took away my future, my future as a mother."

Bobbish's mother Carrie said she's been praying she can forgive.

"I will never see my son smile again in person. I will never feel his chin on my head when he hugs me. I, too, have so many nevers," she said.

She described her son as a "typical 17-year-old boy. He never felt danger."

Michael Bobbish said his son was unafraid to go into the city even though he warned him to "stay out of Detroit because it wasn't a good place."

When asked if he had anything to say, Young stunned the courtroom when he turned to the media and delivered a statement.

"I'd like to say sorry to the families of Aiyana Jones, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. I want to apologize to them for not being able to get justice for their loved ones who was murdered in cold blood. And in respect for the peaceful protest, I want to say 'Hands up, don't shoot. Black lives matter.' That's it your honor," he said.

Prosecutors said the teens, who had been missing for five days after trying to buy drugs in the city, were robbed, put in the trunk of a car and driven around for an hour before they were forced to kneel and were shot in the back of the head in July 2012.

Their bodies were later found in a trash-strewn field overgrown by weeds near Detroit's city airport, not far from the drug house on Algonac street where they were forced into a car's trunk. Both were dressed only in undergarments.

In July of 2012, larceny, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence charges in connection to Jacob Kudla's vehicle were filed against two ex-cons from Detroit, Casey Green and Larry Anderson. Police say Green and Anderson stripped the car and cleaned it with bleach to hide their fingerprints. The car was found behind a west side Detroit apartment building with its sound system removed the day after the teens went missing.

Investigators worked for 21 months without a break in the case. Charges were brought against Young and Hunter in April 2014.

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