GALVESTON, Texas — The parents of the Santa Fe High School shooting gunman have been cleared after a three-week civil trial in Galveston County.
After nine hours of deliberations, jurors determined that only Dimitrios Pagourtzis and an ammunition dealer were financially liable for the mass shooting that left eight students and two teachers dead on May 18, 2018. They ruled the shooter's parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, were not responsible for his actions.
The couple broke down in tears as the verdict was read.
“I am overjoyed. I think the parents needed to be vindicated and it needed to happen publicly," Lori Laird, the parents' attorney said.
Victims’ attorneys sought to prove that the gunman's parents failed to prevent their son from accessing their guns and failed to get help for his mental health issues.
“You know, as disappointing as the verdict was today, you can’t hurt these families any more than they’ve already been hurt," said Alton Todd who represented some of the families.
"We would’ve liked to have the parents share in their responsibility for this,” Clint McGuire, who represented several of the families, told us.
Jurors awarded families more than $300 million total in damages, including for pain and mental anguish, but they may never see the money.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, now 23, has been repeatedly declared incompetent to stand trial, most recently this past January. He remains in a North Texas mental hospital.
"The damages verdict against an indigent and hospitalized defendant who was incompetent to stand trial and appointed an attorney barely two months before trial, are decisions that an appellate court will have to look at in the future," said Nicholas Poehl, the criminal attorney representing the gunman.
The attorney representing Pagourtzis in the civil trial told jurors that while his client did plan the shooting, he was never in control of his actions because of his severe mental illness.
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 lawsuit until last year when it reached a settlement with the families.
Jake Felde, CEO of Lucky Gunner, said in a statement that the company isn’t responsible for any of the damages awarded by the jury because it was dismissed from the lawsuit.
“Lucky Gunner wasn’t a party to the trial, so it was easy for the jury to place some of the blame on us because we weren’t there to defend ourselves,” Felde said.
The jury foreman told us that the trial was "incredibly emotional" and there were no winners.
“This was a tragedy, and all the families suffered, including Dimitrious’s family," he said. “Trying to put a dollar amount to it was very challenging.”
He said they tried to put themselves in the shoes of the gunman's parents.
“We spent most of our time talking about what signs they saw.”
Galveston County Court at Law Judge Jack Ewing delivered a strong message to close the trial.
“We need to protect our children. They need to feel safe when they go to school,” Ewing said. “They need to feel safe at home. And that message will carry even outside of the walls and the doors of this courtroom. And hopefully, it will follow into the ears of our legislators.”
