Teen accused in 2020 home invasion, beating death of elderly Lorain veteran

A Cuyahoga County man has been charged with murder in connection with the death of an elderly Lorain man who was severely beaten in a 2020 home invasion, then died a month later. Malakhi Young, 18, of Brooklyn, is charged with aggravated murder, murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, felonious assault and tampering with evidence in the July 2020 beating and August 2020 death of 78-year-old Oscar "Butch" Lang Jr. Young was 15 at the time of the alleged crimes, according to court records. His charges were bound over from Lorain County Juvenile Court to Common Pleas Court. The case is assigned to Judge Melissa Kobasher. Attorney Michael Towne, who is representing Young, said the following about his client Thursday: "Unfortunately, he's another children services success story. He grew up being bounced around from placement to placement without any real intervention." "At some point, we are going to have to put more resources into intervention," Towne said. "Otherwise it's just going to get worse and worse. The cost of intervention is much less for all of us rather than the prison industry we have created." Lang was severely beaten during a burglary at his West 25th Street home on July 24, 2020. After the incident, he told The Chronicle-Telegram that he had just finished watching a John Wayne movie on TV that night when he heard a sound outside. He turned off his living room light and got into his hospital bed, when a burglar punched through the screen on the front door and assaulted him. "Next thing I know I was getting beat on," Lang told the Chronicle four days after the attack. "I don't know what he used, but he used something." Lang said there were two men there, and that the one who attacked him demanded money. The attacker was called by another man and left empty-handed. A diabetic, Lang was on blood thinners and was left bleeding heavily from cuts to his face and around his eyes. A neighbor heard Lang calling for help and gave first aid until first responders showed up. Lang died Aug. 24, 2020, at Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office. The cause of his death was blunt force trauma to the head and face, according to the medical examiner's office. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Lang served in the 82nd Airborne Division. After leaving the Army, he worked at Ford and had lived in the same home for 50 years. The Lorain County Board of Commissioners paid for Lang's burial because he was an indigent military veteran. A neighbor told Lorain police that a white Mitsubishi SUV with heavy front-end damage, a missing grille and only one headlight left the scene soon after Lang was assaulted. Lorain police and the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office said the car belonged to a 22-year-old Westview Terrace man, Jonathan Quillen. Quillen was charged with murder, aggravated burglary and felonious assault in common pleas court in September 2020. He pleaded not guilty and the case was assigned to Judge Christopher Rothgery's court. A trial date had been set in August 2021, but the prosecutor's office dismissed the charges against Quillen in June 2021, according to court records. It wasn't immediately clear on Thursday why the charges against Quillen were dropped. The prosecutor's office dismissed the charges "without prejudice," giving them the right to refile at another time, according to court records. Young also is facing felony charges of burglary and grand theft of a firearm or dangerous ordnance filed April 27, according to common pleas court records. Towne also is representing Young in that case, which also was bound over to common pleas court from juvenile court, according to court records. Young made headlines in May 2022 when he briefly escaped Ohio Department of Youth Services custody in suburban Cuyahoga County. At the time, he was in custody on charges unrelated to the Lang case, authorities said. The State Highway Patrol said Young was recaptured in the 13000 block of Astor Avenue in Cleveland later that day — approximately 12 miles from where he was last seen on Chagrin Boulevard in Shaker Heights. Original reporting by Carissa Woytach was used in this story. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.