HOUSTON, Texas – The jury in the civil trial against the parents of the accused Santa Fe gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis has been charged with 25 questions.
If you’re not familiar with the Texas Judicial System and how things operate, here’s a quick overview.
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There are two types of cases -- criminal and civil. The Santa Fe trial against Dimitrios’ parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, is considered a civil case. The family of those killed and injured during the 2018 mass shooting seeks to hold Dimitrios and his parents financially liable. They are pursuing at least $1 million in damages.
Victims’ attorneys say the parents failed to provide necessary support for their son’s mental health and didn’t do enough to prevent him from accessing their guns.
What is a civil case?
A civil case results from a disagreement or dispute between two or more individuals or organizations. The party bringing the civil suit is the plaintiff. The party being sued is the defendant. Civil suits usually involve disagreements about money or property, and no criminal violations are involved. In a civil case, you, as a juror, must answer questions of disputed facts based upon the testimony and evidence admitted by the Judge. The answers to these questions are called the verdict.
What is the charge of the court?
The Charge of the Court includes a series of questions that the jury must answer after considering all of the evidence admitted during the trial. Remember that while the judge determines issues of law, the jury must decide issues of fact and apply those facts to the law. The instructions guide the deliberations.
“Because this a civil case versus a criminal case, a jury can reach a verdict if 10 members agree upon an answer to each question, but it must be the same 10. As an example, you can’t have 10 on (question) number one and two drop out, and then the two that were not in, dropped out for question number two, that’s not the same 10,” said Alton Todd, the plaintiff’s attorney. “The last two questions deal with malice and exemplary damages. On those questions, it must be a unanimous verdict of all 12.”
Questions the jury is charged with in the Santa Fe civil trial:
1. Did Dimitrios Pagourtzis commit an assault against the following persons?
- Christopher Jake Stone
- Christian Riley Garcia
- Sabika Aziz Sheikh
- Jared Conard Black
- Kimberly Vaughan
- Aaron Kyle McLeod
- Cynthia Tisdale
- Flo Rice
- Chase Yarbrough
- Trenton Beazley
- Clayton Horn
2. Did the negligence, if any, of those named below approximately cause the occurrence in question?
- Antonios Pagourtzis
- Rose Marie Kosmetatos
- Luckygunner, LLC
The challenge with this, according to Lori Lard, the defense attorney for Dimitrios’ parents, would be “recall, right? Because you’ve heard several things said different ways.”
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