LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A Louisville man acquitted of murder nearly eight years ago just confessed in a WDRB News exclusive interview. However, the confession raises more questions: Why is he confessing now? And is it just a ploy to get his father, who originally confessed to the crime, out of prison?
Josh Young, 23, has spent most of his adult life in and out of jail and prison, mainly for drug, gun and assault charges. But he was just 15 when he went on trial for the most serious charge he has faced: complicity to murder.
Young was accused of beating his stepbrother, 14-year-old Trey Zwicker, to death with a baseball bat in May 2011. A jury found him not guilty in 2013. Meanwhile, Young’s father had already confessed to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison.
WDRB News has released the confession letter Josh Young sent from prison and detailed his account of the murder. The essence of his confession is that he murdered Zwicker and that Gouker was never involved.
“There’s no plan, no conspiring, all of that,” Young said when asked about whether his confession is part of a scheme to release his father. “It’s the truth. For once, finally it’s the truth! Point blank. Period.”
The ever-changing stories
During Young’s trial, several witnesses testified that the teenager was the one responsible for Zwicker’s murder. No one witnessed it, but at least three people on the stand testified that Young told them he killed Zwicker with a baseball bat.
Young, who was pleading not guilty to complicity to murder, did not testify during the trial, and the murder weapon was never found.
To explain his innocence, Gouker said in a prison interview with WDRB News late last year that there is video evidence of him and his then-wife Amanda Campbell having sex around the time of the murder. He said there is also surveillance video of him and Campbell going to the convenience store to buy cigarettes afterward. Gouker said the video shows he was wearing the same outfit, and the time stamps put him nowhere near the crime scene that night.
VIDEO | In a jail interview, Josh Young explains why he wrote the confession letter now.
(WARNING: This clip contains language that was too explicit for air.)
He said he concocted a bare-bones confession, based on his son’s limited information, of how it happened and the evidence provided to his attorneys. He also said he was “Donald Trumping it” by making up a lot of his testimony in the heat of the moment.
“The prosecution knew it,” Gouker said. “They knew in court records that I lied, and the lie I chose to go with that I was the killer. They knew. They knew I didn’t do it. It doesn’t matter what they knew. It’s what they could prove.”
Gouker believes prosecutors allowed him to lie for his confession and during Young’s trial, because his testimony and criminal reputation would help convict both of them. Gouker’s attorneys advised him not to plead guilty on several occasions. After Young was found not guilty, Gouker eventually tried to withdraw his plea by stating his attorneys were ineffective. A judge denied the request.
Gouker stands by that claim now, saying he only pleaded guilty in order to protect his son from a life sentence in prison.
Now 39, Gouker said he regrets that Trey Zwicker died. But he said there was no way for him to stop it, because he had no clue what Young was doing.
“By the time I found out, it was too late," he said. "There was only one person left to save. And that’s Josh."
The search for the truth
Terry Zwicker said he has been stuck in a fog ever since detectives asked him to identify his son’s body in May 2011. He said even though the trials are over, he is still constantly searching for the truth about what happened to his son. WDRB News shared Young’s confession letter with the Zwicker family.
“Obviously me, my search is for the truth,” Terry Zwicker said. “And that letter does have some truth to it.”
He believed all along that Young was involved in killing his son, but he also believes that should not change anything in regards to Gouker’s guilt.
“I believe Young did exactly what he said he did,” Terry Zwicker said, referring to the letter. “Except he wasn’t alone. They were both there. Gouker definitely hit my child that night, and he knocked him unconscious. And that’s definitely in the findings. And he left Young down there to finish the job, obviously to earn his ranks in the so-called gang they were affiliated with.”
In 2011, Trey Zwicker outweighed Young, making it difficult for the murdered boy’s father to believe that Young could’ve been solely responsible for the fatal beating.
And Terry Zwicker also said he is skeptical of Josh Young’s confession now.
“I believe it’s some type of another game that they’re wanting to play,” he said. “Gouker is trying to now say, ‘I’m innocent.’ And he’s trying to get out. But obviously, with one acquittal on there, it’s very scary. Can that really happen?”
VIDEO | Trey Zwicker's father shares what he thinks happened the night his son was killed.
Could it work?
Elizabeth Jones Brown prosecuted the Trey Zwicker murder cases for the Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney Office. WDRB News shared the confession letter with her to understand if it could impact the cases at all. She said she always believed both Young and Gouker were involved in the murder, which is why both were charged.
“They can file whatever motions they’re going to file. I can’t stop them from filing things,” Jones Brown said. “And we can’t do anything about Young, obviously, because of the principle of double jeopardy.”
And Young cannot be charged with perjury, because he never testified at trial, she explained.
Jones Brown said Young and Gouker have changed their stories so many times that she can’t “put any stock in what they say.” But she would not put it past them to come up with a scheme for Young, who is untouchable for the murder, to confess in order to try and get his father out of prison. Jones Brown said she is confident the plea and sentence against Gouker will stand, despite Young’s confession letter.
She also said it’s frustrating to hear the cases brought up again, because she believes it must be difficult for the Zwicker family to fully heal.
IMAGES | Josh Young through the years
“I understand that it would be very difficult to be a juror and look at an individual who presents as young as he did, and to think that he was capable of such violence,” Jones Brown said. “Because I believe it is human nature to see hope and see good in people. So I understand that it was hard for the jury.”
The prosecutor said she still believes the evidence presented to the jury in Young’s trial was strong and proved his involvement and guilt.
“And to see him get away with that is frustrating,” she added. “It’s also frustrating that he didn’t take the opportunity that he was given by this twist of fate and turn his life around and do something good with it. Instead, he has been arrested and convicted numerous times. So he has not used his, what now is turning out to be unjustified freedom, for good.”
Young appeared on the Dr. Phil Show in 2014, after he was acquitted. According to Young’s confession letter, Dr. Phil told the teenager he could tell Young was innocent. Young wrote, “Well I guess even a psychology degree can’t teach you commons sense, because I played my role and fooled him easily.”
VIDEO | In a jail interview, Josh Gouker said even though he's serving life in prison, he'd do it all again.
Another second chance
Young is scheduled to be released from federal custody in September after serving out his sentence on gun charges unrelated to the murder. He said he intends to turn his life around for the sake of his son, who just recently turned four years old. Young hopes to be accepted into college to study social work.
“To my son,” he said, “I’m going to be the father he needs. And to all my family, I hold my family together. Everybody in my family depend on me. And I’m done with the streets. The streets don’t lead to nothing but death or the feds and penitentiary.”
He also hopes that others will listen to him and work to release his father from prison for a crime he says Gouker never committed. Even though he now claims he killed Trey Zwicker, Young says he has no remorse.
Meanwhile, Terry Zwicker said he feels like a failure as a father because he couldn’t protect his family or his son. He feels constantly haunted, saying he doesn’t believe he’ll ever truly know what happened.
“My child is gone,” he said. “Now I have bits and pieces of a story in my head that I’ve put together for some type of closure. But it’s really not closure, because I can’t say it’s the truth … The reality, sure they’re in jail. But are they being punished like I am?
“I’m taking a hell of a beating out here on a day-to-day basis. And I ain’t getting no further than the day I looked down in that ditch and realized that was my son laying there.”
VIDEO | Elizabeth Jones Brown explains why she finds the confession letter frustrating.
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