The parents of a former student accused of at a high school near Houston in 2018 do not bear financial responsibility for the shooting, a jury decided Monday.
A lawsuit brought by sought to hold Dimitrios Pagourtzis and his parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, accountable for the shooting at Santa Fe High School in 2018. During a three-week trial, attorneys for the families argued the parents failed to provide necessary support for their son鈥檚 mental health and didn鈥檛 do enough to prevent him from accessing their guns.
Jurors instead put the responsibility with Dimitrios Pagourtzis and a firearms ammunition retailer in a verdict that awarded families more than $300 million total in damages, including for pain and mental anguish.
Attorneys for the families said they were disappointed in the outcome.
"We鈥檝e would鈥檝e liked to have the parents share in their responsibility for this,鈥� said Clint McGuire, who represented several of the families.
Authorities say fatally shot Pagourtzis, now 23, has been charged with capital murder, but the criminal case has been on hold since November 2019, when he was to stand trial. He is being held at a state mental health facility.
In April, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison by a Michigan judge after becoming the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. Pagourtzis鈥� parents are not accused of any crime.
was filed by relatives of seven of the people killed and four of the 13 who were wounded in the Santa Fe attack.
The jury also assigned some responsibility to Lucky Gunner, a Tennessee-based online retailer that sold Dimitrios Pagourtzis more than 100 rounds of ammunition without verifying his age and with the families last year. The company had previously been a defendant in the lawsuit.
Jake Felde, CEO of Lucky Gunner, said in a statement that the company isn鈥檛 responsible for any of the damages awarded by the jury because it was dismissed from the lawsuit.
鈥淟ucky Gunner wasn鈥檛 a party to the trial, so it was easy for the jury to place some of the blame on us because we weren鈥檛 there to defend ourselves,鈥� Felde said.
The attorney representing Pagourtzis told jurors that while his client did plan the shooting, he was never in control of his actions because of his severe mental illness.
McGuire said the parents knew their son was depressed, receiving bad grades, isolating himself, and had taken weapons from their gun cabinet and safe. McGuire said Pagourtzis also wrote disturbing Facebook posts and ordered ammunition and other items online, such as a knife with a Nazi symbol and a T-shirt that said, 鈥淏orn To Kill.鈥�
But Lori Laird, an attorney for Pagourtzis鈥� parents, told jurors that the couple hadn鈥檛 seen any red flags, knew nothing of his online purchases and didn鈥檛 know any of their weapons were missing.
鈥淲e need to protect our children. They need to feel safe when they go to school,鈥� Galveston County Court at Law Judge Jack Ewing said after the verdict was delivered. 鈥淭hey 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.鈥�
Both parents testified during the trial. Antonios Pagourtzis is retired but worked for years in ship maintenance and repair. Kosmetatos works as an executive assistant at an academic health science center in Galveston.
Kosmetatos told jurors that while her son became more introverted as he grew older, he was a bright and normal child with no significant issues. She acknowledged that he 鈥渨asn鈥檛 himself鈥� in the months leading up to the shooting but she had hoped it would pass.
Antonios Pagourtzis testified that he wasn鈥檛 aware that his son was feeling rejected and ostracized at school, or that he might have been depressed.
The family stored firearms in a gun safe in the garage and a display cabinet in the living room. Dimitrios Pagourtzis used his mother鈥檚 .38 caliber handgun and one of his father鈥檚 shotguns during the shooting. Whether he got the weapons from the safe or cabinet, and where he found the keys, were among points debated during the trial.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 secure anything 100%,鈥� Antonios Pagourtzis said.
Similar lawsuits have been filed following other mass shootings.
In 2022, a jury awarded over $200 million to the mother of one of four people killed in a shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee. The lawsuit was filed against the shooter and his father, who was accused of returning a rifle to his son before the shooting despite the son鈥檚 mental health issues.
___
Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
Paul J. Weber And Rio Yamat, The Associated Press
