LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) After two grueling years of trials and testimony, Terry Zwicker says his slain son was failed twice once in life and once in death.
Zwicker is the father of Trey Zwicker, the teen found beaten to death behind Liberty High School in 2011.
Trey's stepfather Joshua Gouker and his son Joshua Young were both charged with murder. Gouker later confessed to the crime while his son was acquitted Friday night.
'Pretty much he got away with murder,' Zwicker said.
Zwicker said the trial was never going to be fair for him or his family but now that the trial is over, the torture of reliving that moment is finally done and he can start putting his life back together.
He says he was confident in the Commonwealth's case and he even turned down a plea deal from the defense because he wanted full justice for his son. Zwicker says he has no regrets for declining the deal.
'It would have been a smack in the face to take something like that,' he said.
Now that Josh Young is a free man, Zwicker says he respects the decision the 12 jurors made.
'No matter what the verdict was, I walked out of there a free man,' he said.
Zwicker says he plans to be active in the community and help other families deal with similar grief.
Young's father, Gouker, was sentenced to life in prison for Trey's murder.
