Ringgold Man Who Shot and Killed Teen in his Yard Dies

RINGGOLD, GA (WDEF) – McCracken Poston, the McConathy family attorney, says, "It’s a sad day for the McConathy family."

Up until this week, the family of Dalton McConathy, 17, held on to a little bit of hope.

Poston adds, "They were looking forward to looking at all the facts and then hoping a future prosecutor would have taken the case up."

McConathy was shot in the neck after homeowner, Fred Youngblood, caught him prowling around his property, possibly looking for items to scrap.

District Attorney Buzz Franklin had been sitting on this case for about six months, but now there will be no resolution because Youngblood suddenly died on Tuesday.

He was 69-years-old.

Poston adds, "It’s almost like they’re grieving again and this time for the absolute loss of justice now."

Poston, says the death ultimately robbed the family of closure, and robbed the community of understanding the Stand Your Ground Law just a little bit better.

Poston adds, "From your subjective view, when you see something that scares you, you can shoot. The pendulum has to swing back away from that because it’s now gone to this ridiculous extreme."

This unusual story now abruptly ends, but it leaves people still wondering .. was this really a case of self defense or was this man a dangerous neighbor?

There’s no word on what caused Youngblood’s death.

According to his obituary, he was a retired Dupont worker and a big outdoorsman.

Two other teenagers who were with McConathy during the incident were charged with burglary.

Poston represents one of them, and as far he knows, their cases have not been dismissed.