On the morning of October 2, 2021, police were called to the InTown Suites in the Okolona neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, to investigate a reported break-in. Inside one of the rooms, they made a grim discovery. There, they found the body of 40-year-old Poncho Young, a male resident of Louisville who had been fatally shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound.
The initial investigation revealed that Young was not alone when he was killed; several other people
were present in the hotel room at the time of the shooting. As detectives began to piece together the events of that morning, their attention turned to surveillance footage and witness statements. The evidence pointed towards a 28-year-old Louisville woman named Chelynda Howlett. Video footage captured Howlett entering the hotel room with a purse before the shooting and leaving later without it. In a telling sequence of events, she was seen returning to the hotel, breaking a window to get back inside the room, and then leaving a second time, this time with her purse concealed in a sheet.
For more than a year, the case continued until an arrest was made. On December 5, 2022, Louisville Metro Police Department officers took Chelynda Howlett into custody. She was charged with a string of offenses, including murder, first-degree burglary, tampering with physical evidence, and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. At the time of the incident, Howlett had been out of jail on previous weapons and drug charges.
Ultimately, the case did not go to a full trial. On June 18, 2025, Howlett accepted a plea deal. The murder charge was amended to reckless homicide, and she pleaded guilty to that and the other remaining charges. A judge sentenced Chelynda Howlett to 15 years in prison for her role in the death of Poncho Young. According to court documents, she will become eligible for parole after serving twenty percent of her sentence.
