A young man who gunned down a 15-year-old Moreno Valley boy to rob him of marijuana and other possessions is slated to be sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A Riverside jury in May convicted Terrence Vincent Young, 22, of Moreno Valley of first-degree murder, a special-circumstance allegation of killing during the commission of a robbery and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations for the 2022 slaying of Gregory Shallowhorn Jr.
Life imprisonment is mandatory under state law. Young is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, late on the afternoon of Dec. 6, 2022, Young arranged to meet Shallowhorn for a drug and firearm transaction near the boy’s residence on Shadow Drive.
The defendant and victim had been trading messages via Instagram for days regarding the possibility of Young selling his Taurus 9mm handgun in exchange for cash, a necklace and a pound of marijuana, prosecutors said. Between online chats with the youth, Young carried on conversations with friends bragging that he intended to “book” — street slang for rob — Shallowhorn, the brief said.
The defendant retrieved the victim less than a block from his house, and the two drove toward the intersection of Cagney Court and Cactus Avenue in the Jeep Renegade belonging to Young’s girlfriend, whose identity was not disclosed in court papers.
The drive was apparently justified by Young as providing time to negotiate final terms of the sales transaction, but prosecutors said that during the roughly 10 minutes they were together, the defendant brandished his handgun and ordered Shallowhorn to relinquish his backpack, in which the cannabis, necklace and cash had been placed.
The boy demanded to be let out of the SUV. As Young pulled over in the area of Cagney and Unity Street, he fired at Shallowhorn before the teenager could get out of the vehicle. The bullet traveled through the victim’s buttocks and penetrated an artery in his right thigh, according to the brief.
Young pulled Shallowhorn’s backpack away from him and fired another shot that went wide as the boy hobbled toward the nearest house, shouting, “I’ve been shot!” the brief said.
Young fled in the Jeep, and Shallowhorn collapsed in the doorway of a concerned resident who heard his cries for help, according to the prosecution. Patrol deputies reached the location several minutes later and attempted to provide medical aid until paramedics arrived. They tried to stabilize the teen, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Central Homicide Unit detectives were able to confirm the youth’s mobile phone was missing and requested a trace to find it, leading to the device’s recovery a day later near the 60/91/215 interchange in Riverside. The investigation led to discovery of the social media conversations between the defendant and victim. Prosecutors said the sheriff’s team also checked the Moreno Valley Citywide Camera System to help them identify the Jeep and its owner — Young’s girlfriend and mother of his two children.
The woman informed detectives he had left their apartment on the day of the shooting, without disclosing anything, and hadn’t returned, according to the brief. The defendant’s mobile phone was tracked via “pings” provided by his telecommunications service to investigators, resulting in their going to his cousin’s house in Bellflower on Dec. 9, 2022. The prosecution said that as they arrived, they spotted a Lexus leaving the property and stopped it.
“The defendant was found in the back passenger seat,” the brief said. “The driver was his mother.”
Young was taken into custody without incident.
He had no documented prior adult felony convictions in Riverside County.