Opinion ID: 2829612
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Youngs’ Marital Difficulties

Text: As of 2 November 2006, the Youngs had been married for slightly more than three years. The Youngs’ friends assumed that their courtship, which had been less than idyllic, resulted in marriage solely because Ms. Young became pregnant. The Youngs’ relationship was described as “volatile,” with the couple tending to argue in public over relatively petty matters. Ms. Young’s sister, Meredith Fisher, thought that defendant was irresponsible and treated Ms. Young poorly. Although Meredith Fisher told Ms. Young that she should leave defendant, Ms. Young made no effort to divorce her husband. On one occasion, defendant told a friend that he was afraid that, if he and Ms. Young divorced, Ms. Young would leave the Raleigh area and move to New York with their two-and-one-half-year-old daughter, Emily.1 Among the sources of conflict which the Youngs experienced was the role played by Ms. Young’s mother, Linda Fisher, who visited the Youngs for extended periods of time, wanted to move to North Carolina so that she could spend more time with her daughter and granddaughter, and offered to renovate the Youngs’ house so that she could live there. Although Ms. Young wanted to have her mother’s 1 “Emily” is a pseudonym used throughout this opinion to protect the identity of the Youngs’ daughter. -2- STATE V. YOUNG