08/25/2022
A 26-year-old Baltimore woman has been acquitted of allegations that she killed her mother and burned her body in 2019.
After a bench trial, Circuit Judge John Nugent found Eshyna Young not guilty Monday of all charges related to the death of 50-year-old Tinestta Young.
Police said Tinestta Young’s body was discovered on March 6, 2019, around 1 a.m. on the second floor of a burning home in the first block of South Morley Street, which is in the Saint Joseph’s neighborhood of South Baltimore.
An autopsy found the woman had been asphyxiated, police said at the time.
The medical examiner collected Tinestta's remains and immediately discovered signs that she did not die as a result of the fire.
A month later, police arrested her daughter, Eshyna Young, 26. She had been charged with murder and arson.
The medical examiner later determined that Tinestta died from asphyxiation. However, other doctors determined she died from thermal injuries and smoke inhalation.
An expert witness John Lentini testified it was likely Tinestta was smoking in bed and started the fire by accident.
Young’s public defenders, Julie Shapiro and Shomari Taylor, cheered the acquittal in a statement.
