A North Charleston man was sentenced to 40 years in state prison June 9 after a Charleston County jury found him guilty of the 2019 murder of his ex-wife’s paramour.
Algernard Devincent Young, 43, stood trial this week in Charleston County’s General Sessions Court for the slaying of 40-year-old David Alston more than three years ago in the parking lot of a West Ashley apartment complex.
The victim was in a romantic relationship with Gladys Singleton, who had recently divorced Young after police charged him with domestic violence.
The state cast Young as a raging jealous ex-husband who acted on previous threats to kill the victim and then lied about his whereabouts. The prosecution, which laid out its case over the course of five days, presented almost exclusively circumstantial evidence. Police did not locate a murder weapon, eyewitnesses or video footage of the shooting.
But the state’s argument was strong enough to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Young shot Alston twice in the back of his head in the early hours of Nov. 16, 2023, outside his ex-wife’s apartment on 78 Ashley Hall Plantation Road.
Jurors reached a unanimous verdict after roughly four hours of deliberations. More than a dozen of the defendant’s family members were present at the trial and sentencing.
Algernard Young. Charleston County Sheriff’s Office/Provided.
Singleton, Young’s ex-wife who testified against him, said in a phone interview following the verdict and sentence that she was happy “Justice was served.”
“The way I’m smiling right now I haven’t smiled since David,” she said. Singleton recalled how Alston made her laugh. He even gave her flowers.
Singleton sat throughout the trial next to the victim’s former wife, Latiya Alston, whom she met this week for the first time, she said.
Latiya Alston, 44, was married to the deceased for 18 years and said she separated from him six months before the shooting. She recalled his work-ethic, introverted but kind character and love of video games and shopping.
In contrast to the victim, Young was controlling and abusive, Singleton testified on the second day of the trial. He was charged with domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature in January 2019 while they were separated. Singleton divorced Young one month before the shooting and took out a protective order against her former husband. But he repeatedly stalked her and threatened to kill her new boyfriend.
“He shot David because if he couldn’t have Gladys, no one could,” Assistant Solicitor Jessica Baldwin told jurors during her closing argument.
Jurors twice watched an emotional clip of body camera footage depicting Singleton when she learned Alston was shot to death. Through sobs and shrieks, the woman adamantly stated her ex-husband was responsible and would kill her too. She testified that she heard her ex’s voice yell from the parking lot at the time of the shooting.
The majority of the 16 people whom the state called to testify detailed gunshot residue, firearm analysis and cell tower and GPS data. Prosecutors and defense attorneys sparred over the issues.
Young showed up to his ex-wife’s apartment complex two hours after the shooting and told police he had not been at the scene previously that night.
But GPS phone data analyzed by law enforcement placed him at the apartment complex earlier Nov. 15. Two of the defendant’s iPhones were at his North Charleston home at the time of the shooting — around 1:30 a.m. — but his flip phone pinged from a cellular tower in West Ashley.
Three particles consistent with gunshot residue were recovered from Young’s hands. But one of the defendant’s attorneys, Shaun Kent, presented a study from the peer-reviewed journal Forensic Science International that found gunshot residue is common on police’s hands and can transfer onto another person’s hands during handcuffing.
The defense did not call anyone to the stand.
Kent contended in closing arguments that the state presented “70 percent of the case.” He alleged prosecutors withheld important information, including that Alston was married, that Singleton sent affectionate communications to her ex-husband and that very few gunshot residue particles were found on the defendant’s hands.
“Details mean everything,” he said.
Circuit Judge Deadra Jefferson sentenced Young to 40 years for the murder change and 5 years for the weapons offense, to run concurrently. He will receive credit for more than three years detained in the county jail awaiting trial.
After the shooting, Singleton said, she isolated herself. She abruptly left the Charleston area, where she and her family are from, and has not stayed in one place for long since out of fear.
The verdict gives her courage.
“I just have to work on myself at this point,” she said.