LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11)-- Seventeen- year-old Josh Young, acquitted in the murder his 14-year-old step brother, Trey Zwicker, is trying to rebuild his life.
This past Sunday he went to church for the first time in more than two years his foster mother, Susan Stoneburner, said. When introduced he was given a standing ovation by the congregation.
'Before they could even finish reading the announcement everyone started standing, cheering for him, and they including he himself stood up,' Dot King, a close family friend and member of the congregation at Louisville Church of Christ, said.
King said even though the charges Young faced were heinous, she and other parishioners had been praying for Young and his foster family throughout the ordeal.
'The details didn't matter to us, it was just more so about obviously some people in our church need a little bit more support and help,' she said.
Young lived in juvenile detention since May 2011, when police arrested him in connection with Zwicker's death. King said at church Sunday she began the process of getting to know him all over again.
'I think it's awkward for him at first being separate from us, and not knowing so many, but I just walked up to him and reintroduced myself,' King said.
Young's family wants him to return to a normal teenage life as soon as possible and King said that process seemed to be moving along slowly but steadily.
'He didn't say much, he just nodded and smiled,' she said.
And though Young may have to struggle with judgments and perceptions from the rest of society, in church, at least, King said she believes he'll find a safe haven.
