XPost: alt.education, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.transgendered   
   XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   From: losers@budweiser.com   
      
   GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- The parents of a former student accused of   
   killing 10 people in the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting cannot be held   
   responsible for what happened, a jury decided Monday at the conclusion of a   
   civil trial in Galveston.   
      
   The parents of the admitted shooter, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, were both sued,   
   with families of the victims alleging that, as parents, Antonios Pagourtzis   
   and Rose Maria Kosmetatos should have both secured the family's guns and   
   gotten their son mental health    
   treatment.   
      
   The jury determined Dimitrios' parents were not liable for the deaths. They   
   assigned the conduct responsible for the deaths primarily to Dimitrios and   
   partly to the online gun store that sold the weapons. Millions of dollars in   
   judgments were awarded to    
   the victim's families.   
      
   Lucky Gunner, the gun store found partially liable for the massacre, gave   
   ABC13 this statement about the verdict:   
      
   "We were dismissed from this lawsuit more than two years ago. 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. Due to our   
   dismissal, Lucky Gunner isn't    
   responsible for paying any monetary damages awarded by the jury.   
      
   It's worth noting that plaintiff Trent Beasley has said Lucky Gunner didn't   
   break any laws, and the plaintfiffs' lead attorney, Clint McGuire, has also   
   publicly acknowledged the same thing. We believe the jury was likely never   
   told that."   
      
   Jurors came to a judgment ruling of about $300 million awarded to the victims'   
   families, whom will likely not see in its entirety.   
      
   On May 18, 2018, 10 people - eight students and two teachers - were fatally   
   shot and 13 others wounded in the school shooting. Dimitrios was 17 years old   
   at the time. The Galveston County District Attorney's Office has deemed him   
   incompetent to stand    
   trial, and he remains in custody at North Texas State Hospital.   
      
   The victims and their families sat through weeks of grueling testimony.   
      
   The jury, composed of eight men and four women, was sent to deliberate at   
   about 4:50 p.m. Friday and adjourned for the day at 5:35 p.m. Deliberations   
   resumed at 9 a.m. Monday. The jurors asked permission to continue their   
   deliberations after 5 p.m.    
   Monday, delivering their verdict minutes after 6 p.m.   
      
   Jurors were given 24 charges to respond to. Each charge had multiple questions   
   they were asked to answer.   
      
   During Friday's closing arguments, Clint McGuire, the victims' attorney, said   
   the case is about justice and accountability.   
      
   "We are here because (Pagourtzis and Kosmetatos) refused to accept any   
   responsibility," McGuire said. "It was their son under their roof with their   
   guns who went and committed this mass shooting."   
      
   McGuire showed the shirt that Dimitrios wore during the shooting that read,   
   "Born to kill," and excerpts from his journal, one of which reads, "What I do   
   will both have an immeasurable impact and be incredibly miniscule. I will have   
   destroyed bloodlines    
   spanning thousands of years." McGuire told jurors that the then-17-year-old   
   had intent with what he was doing.   
      
   He urged the jurors to award the families of the deceased and the surviving   
   victims $25 million each.   
      
   The attorneys for each victim took time during their one-hour and 20-minute   
   closing argument to speak about each victim and their experience on May 18,   
   2018. Many of the attorneys were choked up while they spoke.   
      
   "We can't send our kids to school and bring them home in body bags," McGuire   
   said.   
      
   Alton Todd represents Rhonda Hart, whose daughter, Kimberly Vaughan, was   
   killed during the shooting. He said, "You could fill this room with money.   
   Each one of these parents wants their child back. But money is all you can   
   award. That's all. Nobody goes    
   to jail. It's money. Your money will say something. It's not what it is. It's   
   what it will say, and it needs to be heard loudly."   
      
   When Pagourtzis and Kosmetatos' attorney, Lori Laird, spoke, she said, "The   
   reality is they are trying to make a case out of nothing. They are looking at   
   little things that an ordinary person would not see as problematic and turn it   
   into something that    
   it's not."   
      
   She said that her clients did not know that their son was battling mental   
   illness or planning the mass shooting. During her arguments, Laird showed   
   photos on a projector of Dimitrios days before the shooting and pointed out   
   that he looked normal.   
      
   The attorney quoted Socrates, saying, "You don't know what you don't know."   
      
   "He was sneaky, he was sly, he didn't want to get caught," Laird said.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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