Jury finds parents of Texas student accused in deadly 2018 school massacre were not negligent – ​​104.5 WOKV

GALVESTON, Texas — (AP) — The parents of a former student accused of killing 10 people in a 2018 school shooting near Houston cannot be held responsible for the incidents, a jury decided Monday.

The victims' lawsuit sought to hold Dimitrios Pagourtzis and his parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, financially liable for the shooting at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018. The lawsuit alleged that the parents failed to provide necessary mental health support for their son and did not do enough to prevent him from accessing their guns.

However, the jury found Dimitrios Pagourtzis guilty and awarded the families a total of over $300 million in damages, including for pain and mental anguish.

Authorities say Pagourtzis shot and killed eight students and two teachers. Pagourtzis, now 23, was charged with capital crimes, but the criminal case has been on hold since November 2019, when he was declared incompetent to stand trial. He is being held in a state psychiatric hospital.

“We need to protect our children. They need to feel safe when they go to school,” said Judge Jack Ewing of Galveston County Court after the verdict was announced. “They need to feel safe at home. And that message will be heard outside the walls and doors of this courtroom. And hopefully it will reach the ears of our lawmakers as well.”

In April, Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison by a Michigan judge after becoming the first parents to be convicted in connection with a U.S. school shooting. Pagourtzi's parents are not accused of any crime.

The lawsuit was filed by the relatives of seven of the people killed and four of the 13 injured in the attack in Santa Fe.

Pagourtzis's attorney told jurors that although his client planned the shooting, he was never in control of his actions due to his severe mental illness.

Attorney Clint McGuire, who represents some of the victims, said the parents knew their son was depressed, getting poor grades and isolating himself, and took weapons from their gun cabinet and safe. McGuire said Pagourtzis also made disturbing Facebook posts and ordered ammunition and other items online, including a knife with a Nazi symbol and a T-shirt that read “Born To Kill.”

But Lori Laird, a lawyer for Pagourtzis' parents, told jurors that the couple had not noticed any warning signs, had no knowledge of their online purchases and had no idea that their guns were missing.

Both parents testified during the trial. Antonios Pagourtzis is retired but worked for years in ship maintenance and repair. Kosmetatos works as a senior assistant at an academic health sciences center in Galveston.

Kosmetatos told jurors that although her son had become more introverted as he grew older, he was a bright and normal child with no significant problems. She acknowledged that he had been “not himself” in the months before the shooting, but she had hoped that would pass.

Antonios Pagourtzis testified that he did not know that his son felt rejected and excluded at school or that he might be suffering from depression.

The family stored firearms in a gun safe in the garage and in a display case in the living room. Dimitrios Pagourtzis used his mother's .38 pistol and one of his father's shotguns during the shooting. Whether he got the guns from the safe or the display case and where he found the keys were some of the points discussed during the trial.

“You can’t insure anything 100%,” said Antonios Pagourtzis.

Lucky Gunner, a Tennessee-based online retailer that sold Dimitrios Pagourtzis more than 100 rounds of ammunition without verifying his age, was a defendant in the case until last year when it reached a settlement with the families.

Similar lawsuits have been filed following other mass shootings.

In 2022, a jury awarded over $200 million to the mother of one of the four victims of a shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee. The lawsuit was against the shooter and his father, who was accused of returning a rifle to his son despite the son's mental health issues prior to the shooting.

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