25, 1998, Cecil and Tracy Stowers and their 4-month-old daughter Sydney were traveling home from a family Christmas celebration. Schultz of Kansas City, the defendant’s attorney, declined to discuss the collectibility of the verdict, citing a confidentiality agreement. “This could be an important wake-up call.”īoth Robb and John G. “But the message of this verdict is, even if you get off with a suspended sentence, you will be ruined financially.” “Nothing else we have tried seems to have worked,” said Robb. Robb of Kansas City, who represented the plaintiffs along with Anita Porte Robb, said that he hoped the verdict would send a message that drunk drivers who kill will have to pay for the rest of their lives. The jury in the criminal trial recommended a sentence of 23 years, although no sentence had been imposed as of the civil trial. The civil trial came to a conclusion a month after a criminal trial in which the defendant was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and assault. The jury returned a verdict of $9.9 million in compensatory damages and $13.5 million in punitive damages. He did not present evidence at trial, but on cross-examination of witnesses, raised the possibility that a phantom vehicle was involved in the accident. The defendant testified in deposition that he had not been speeding and was not impaired. The defendant’s blood alcohol level later measured. Eyewitnesses estimated that the defendant was traveling at 100 mph just before he crossed the grassy median strip, went airborne and struck the car of the husband and wife and their 4-month-old daughter. The relatives of a family killed in an accident with a drunk driver have won a $23.4 million verdict against the driver in Jackson County Circuit Court.
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