Man Who Stole His Brother’s Truck and Violated an Order of Protection by Forcing His Family to Travel Across State Lines with Him Sentenced to Prison

U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Iowa
11 December 2019

A man who abused his wife for years, eventually forcing her to leave Iowa with their children was sentenced today to more than six years in federal prison.

Frank Young, age 32, from Anamosa, Iowa, received the prison term after a June 20, 2019, guilty plea to interstate violation of a protection order, causing travel of a victim and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.

Evidence during the case established that between 2016 and 2018, Young engaged in repeated acts of domestic violence against his wife. Young was convicted of domestic abuse assault, trespass, burglary, and child endangerment, as well as multiple violations of the no contact order prohibiting Young from contacting his wife and children. In February 2018, and despite protection orders prohibiting Young from contacting his wife or children, Young stole his brother’s truck and forced his family to leave Iowa in the stolen vehicle. The State of Iowa issued an Amber alert and police arrested Young in Wichita, Kansas.

Young was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Young was sentenced to 77 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Williams noted that Young subjected his wife to a “reign of terror” and commented that it was hard to understand “the horror of what she lived through.”

Young is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lisa C. Williams and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Jones County Sheriff’s Office, and the Exploited and Missing Child Unit which is a task force composed of the State of Kansas D.C.F., the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wichita Police DepartmentCourt file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 19-CR-0015.

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