Relatives described the lasting cost of Young’s death before Jordan Isaac Carmi was sentenced to 20 years.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Tony Alexander Young brought music into his mother’s home, made food and played video games with his son, and carried what his family called a vibrant personality until a New Year’s celebration with friends ended in a fatal shooting.
Six months after Young’s death, his relatives brought those memories into a Polk County courtroom as the friend who shot him learned his punishment. Jordan Isaac Carmi, 31, was sentenced July 10 to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to reckless use of a firearm causing serious injury, involuntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm as a felon. Carmi also was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to Young’s estate, according to the Polk County Attorney’s Office.
Young’s mother, Yvette Young, described her 30-year-old son as a devoted father and a person with a “vibrant, effervescent personality.” Her statement centered on an everyday sign of his presence that had vanished after his death. “He always brought music to my house, and now there is none,” she told the court, according to prosecutors. The brief statement framed the case through the silence left behind rather than the argument, gun and criminal charges that dominated the official record. Young’s girlfriend spoke about their child, who was trying to understand why his father would never come home. She told the court that the boy had been given “a life sentence of grief.” The family’s statements made clear that the consequences were not limited to the final hours of Jan. 1 or the years Carmi would spend in prison. They would continue through missed birthdays, meals, conversations and milestones in the life of a son who had lost his father.
Young’s father, also named Tony Young, directed part of his statement toward Carmi. He said he would pray for the man responsible for his son’s death, but he also asked Carmi to use his prison term to confront the choices that led to the shooting. “I want you to spend enough time to truly, truly reflect and be the person you say you want to be,” he said, according to the county attorney’s account of the sentencing.
The statements followed Carmi’s guilty pleas and his own account of what happened after he and Young went out to celebrate the new year. Prosecutors said the two men visited bars in downtown Des Moines and later returned with other people to the area around Carmi’s apartment in the 300 block of Court Avenue. An argument developed. Carmi said several people would not leave his apartment, so he retrieved a gun. They eventually went away, but he and Young continued talking about whether to follow them.
Carmi told District Judge Samantha Gronewald that he wanted to end that discussion by pointing the loaded weapon at Young. “I thought I could end the conversation by pointing the gun at him,” he said, according to prosecutors. Carmi said he was drunk and high at the time and characterized his handling of the gun as “incredibly stupid.” The firearm discharged and struck Young. The publicly released accounts do not indicate that Young was armed or that he threatened Carmi.
Emergency responders took Young to UnityPoint Des Moines Methodist Medical Center, where he died. His obituary lists his death as Jan. 1, five days after his 30th birthday. Police detained Carmi at the apartment building and initially charged him with first-degree murder. The case later ended without a murder trial when Carmi admitted the three reduced offenses that formed the basis of the 20-year sentence. At the sentencing hearing, Carmi said he had not meant to fire the shot. “I accidentally shot my friend,” he told the judge. He also said Young did not deserve what happened. “I need everyone to understand in no uncertain terms that Tony did not deserve what happened to him,” Carmi said, according to prosecutors. His statements expressed remorse while acknowledging that his own decisions placed a loaded gun into the argument.
The plea to involuntary manslaughter reflected the prosecution’s final legal treatment of the death as unintentional but criminal. Under Iowa law, a person may commit felony involuntary manslaughter by unintentionally causing another person’s death while committing a qualifying public offense. Carmi also admitted reckless use of a firearm causing serious injury. A third conviction addressed his possession of the weapon despite a previous felony drug conviction in Utah.
The distinction between an intentional killing and an unintended fatal shooting changed the charges Carmi ultimately faced, but it did not alter the fact that Young died because the gun was introduced into the dispute. Carmi’s own description established that pointing the firearm was deliberate even though he said its discharge was not. Prosecutors did not release every detail of the plea negotiations or explain in their public announcement precisely why first-degree murder was replaced by the final charges.
For Young’s family, the legal language represented only one part of the story. His obituary said he was born Dec. 26, 1995, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, before moving to Iowa and graduating from Lincoln High School. He enjoyed rap music, dancing, playing football and spending time with friends. The obituary placed special emphasis on his relationship with his son, Jakari, with whom he played video games and prepared meals. Young was survived by Jakari; his mother, Yvette Young; his father, Tony Young; and six siblings: Kyle, Amber, Kaaydah, Ambrose, Javenté and another sibling identified in the obituary. He also left many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Private family services were held through Hamilton’s Southtown Funeral Home. Memorial contributions were directed to the family.
Those personal details stand apart from the official description of Young as the victim in Des Moines’ first reported homicide of 2026. In criminal proceedings, a person’s identity is often compressed into an age, an address and the injuries involved in a case. The family’s remarks restored parts of Young’s life to the public record: the music he carried into a room, the time he spent with his son and the broad circle of relatives who survived him.
The restitution order recognizes Young’s estate as a party entitled to compensation under Iowa law. In felony cases in which a defendant’s acts cause a death, state law provides for a substantial restitution award in addition to documented financial losses. The order remains a legal debt owed by Carmi. Prosecutors did not state how quickly it could be paid or whether further amounts were ordered for medical, funeral or other expenses connected to Young’s death.
Carmi’s prior felony was central to one of his convictions because it made his possession of the gun unlawful. Prosecutors said he had been convicted in Utah in 2016 of possessing drugs with intent to distribute. The sentencing announcement did not explain how he acquired the firearm, how long he had possessed it or whether anyone else knew it was inside the apartment before the argument. Those questions were not necessary to the plea but remain unanswered in the public summaries.
The record also does not disclose the full evidence prosecutors gathered after the shooting, including any forensic reports, witness interviews or surveillance footage. Because Carmi pleaded guilty, that evidence was not presented and tested in a public trial. The available narrative therefore relies heavily on the prosecutor’s sentencing release and Carmi’s statement to the judge, along with the early police account of his arrest.
Carmi’s 20-year sentence determines the principal legal consequence for Young’s death, but it cannot create a matching endpoint for the family. His son will continue growing up without him, and his parents and siblings will continue living with the absence they described in court. The sentencing gave them an opportunity to speak directly about that harm, even though no prison term or restitution judgment could reverse it.
For now, Carmi is expected to serve the sentence in Iowa’s prison system. The public record reviewed for this report does not identify a pending appeal or another scheduled hearing. The prosecution has closed its case with the guilty pleas and sentence. Young’s family, meanwhile, leaves the proceeding with a judgment, a restitution order and the memories they placed before the court.
Author note: Last updated August 5, 2026.