Which Twin Do You Believe? The Case of Frederick and Cedric Young

While there are certainly exceptions, I think it’s safe to say that we’re all raised with a single concept: family. Your family is an important component of your life that is permanent and impactful. Most importantly, though, they’re supposed to be something that you can rely on. The bond between family members is seen as one of the only forms of unconditional love that exists. But what happens when you can’t trust your family? What happens when the family member that betrays you is your own twin brother? Well, that depends on what side of this case you find yourself.

The Story

This story takes place in Greensboro, North Carolina. On June 9, 1993, a woman was returning to her motel room at around midnight. As she was entering the door, two men appeared behind her and forced their way into the room. Both men were armed and used the threat of deadly weapons to force everyone in the room onto the floor. Each of the five people in the room was robbed of all of their cash and jewelry. Just minutes later, the horrifying ordeal was over and the men were gone. The occupants of the room went to the police when the coast was clear. One of the guests got a good look at the robbers and was able to identify them. This led to the police arresting two men — one of them named Frederick Young. The case would go to trial soon after and Young found himself being convicted of the motel robbery.

However, Frederick Young was adamant that he wasn’t the one to commit those robberies. He asserts that his conviction is a case of mistaken identity and that his twin brother — Cedric Young — was actually the one who should be behind bars.

Frederick and Cedric Young were born on December 29, 1971. According to their mother, it was nearly impossible to tell the pair apart. She recalled that she and the rest of the family would often get them confused as they were growing up. The abuse of this fact would be the reason Frederick found himself mixed up in a guilty verdict, to begin with. The night after the robbery occurred (June 10, 1993) Frederick was pulled over by the police. They noticed that he had a broken tail light and needed to see his license and registration. Since Frederick never actually got his driver’s license, he used his brother Cedric’s name instead (he did not have Cedric’s license on him — since that would be a little weird — so he gave his name to the police so they could run it in their systems). Knowing that Cedric had a valid license, Frederick was sure they would believe they’d pulled him over and he would be on his way in no time. However, it turned out that Cedric’s license had been revoked. This led to a series of very unfortunate events for Frederick.

The officers asked to search Frederick’s car upon their discovery of the revoked license. He agreed and was shocked when the police found a bag full of guns in the trunk. They proceeded to arrest him for the robbery at the motel the night before. Later, one of the guns would be linked to the motel robbery in question. Once he was at the police station, Frederick decided to come clean about using his brother’s name during the traffic stop. It turns out that he also had an alibi for the time of the murders; he was with his mother and sister at a bowling alley the night that it had occurred. His pleas came a little too late, though. He was charged with the robbery alongside a close friend of his named Chris Ross.

Consistent with Frederick’s luck thus far, his trial did not go well.

The Trial

A year later, Frederick was in a courtroom fighting this case. Deborah Haney, the motel victim that claims she got a good look at the robbers, definitively identified Frederick as one of the men who barged into their room. She said she was sure of it because she’d actually seen him around the area several times beforehand. Of course, Frederick is certain that she actually saw his brother. Piling on the bad luck, his lawyer failed to subpoena his alleged accomplice after he’d asked him to. There has yet to be an explanation for this, and his attorney wound up losing his license. At some point after the trial, Ross confessed to putting the gun in Frederick’s car without him knowing about it. Why hadn’t he come forward with the information beforehand? Well, he says that no one asked him (which was what the subpoena was supposed to be for). While Ross took a deal and got 22 years, Frederick fought his case and received a 68-year prison sentence.

Then, things began to look up for Frederick.

His new lawyer, Walter Johnson, was able to convince the court of appeals to consider new evidence in his case. This time they were able to put Chris Ross on the stand. He not only confessed to putting the gun in Frederick’s car, but he testified that it was Cedric he committed the robberies with. Still, the Judge was not convinced by this testimony and denied giving Fredrick a new trial. The brothers would later make a (virtual) appearance on Geraldo where Frederick was able to confront Cedric. When host Geraldo Rivera asked Cedric if he was the one that committed the robbery, Cedric denied it. This lead to his brother breaking down into tears while asking him why he would do this to him.

Status

After spending more than 22 years in prison, Frederick was released on parole in March of 2016. Although Cedric may have gotten away with the motel robbery, he would later see himself getting arrested for several others. Not only was he convicted of robbery, but he also was facing charges of larceny, breaking and entering, and child abuse. He is currently in prison until 2022.