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Jury: Kmart Negligent in Gun Sale

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited September 2001 in General Discussion
September 12, 2001 Jury: Kmart Negligent in Gun SaleSALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal court jury decided Wednesday that Kmart was negligent when its employees sold a shotgun to a 19-year-old mentally ill man who committed suicide. The jury set damages of $1.5 million and will return Thursday morning to decide punitive damages. Eslinger's parents, Sandra and Phil Eslinger, had sought $3 million in damages. Closing arguments in the wrongful death suit focused on Kmart's compliance with federal gun laws and whether the company's actions caused the suicide of Ryan Eslinger. The parents alleged Kmart violated federal gun laws when a 17-year-old sales clerk - a high school acquaintance of Eslinger's - sold him the shotgun without seeking proper identification. Eslinger used his passport for the purchase, but that document did not show his address, a requirement for a gun sale. Medication Eslinger was taking would have made him appear drunk, which would have been another reason not to sell the gun to him, the Eslingers' attorney, James McKenna, said. Eslinger was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic in 1995 and declared legally mentally defective. He was involuntary committed in 1996 after cutting his throat in a suicide attempt. When he was released, he started taking the powerful anti-psychotic medication Clozaril. But on the gun application form, he denied he had ever been hospitalized for mental illness or adjudicated mentally defective. That, and other actions he took in the two days it took him to buy the gun and bring it home showed he planned his death, said Kmart attorney Rodney Parker. "Ryan Eslinger came into this store and lied," Parker said. "There's no witness who saw him in the store who said he appeared unstable." A day after he bought the weapon in May 1996, Sandra Eslinger went out of town. That night, Ryan killed himself. "She didn't see this (suicide) coming, either," Parker said. "Nobody saw it coming." --
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Comments

  • jdchasejdchase Member Posts: 44 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    This will almost certainly be overturned on appeal.
    "Don't mean nuthin..." http://members.spree.com/jdchase/
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  • PelicanPelican Member Posts: 1,061 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Evidently the FBI NICS gave him a proceed. Are they being included in the suit?
    "Audemus jura nostra defendere"- - - - - - - - - - - - - It is useless to hold a person accountable for anything they say while in love, drunk, or running for office.
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  • Free N TXFree N TX Member Posts: 165 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sounds like BS to me! If his own mother did not see the suicide coming, then how could anyone else?If he was so dangerous to himself, how could his parents leave him at home by himself, much less leave town? How come he was allowed to go to the store on his own?Sounds like mom and dad are trying to blame someone else and get some traveling money at the same time.Just because someone buys a gun doesn't mean the seller could or would have known the intentions of the buyer.By the way; I take "strong" pain medicine (2 kinds at the same time) and "strong" muscle relaxers, but nobody can tell when I have taken them, except my wife. She can only tell because, I can move with out groaning in pain and can actually stand up straight without it taking a long time (I have to move very slow to reduce the surge of pain). Yes, these medicines are considered strong by most people, morphine and vicodene at maximum dose, and just one of the muscle relaxers will knock most people on their butt by itself (I take 2 at a time).
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  • mudgemudge Member Posts: 4,225 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    The Eslingers probably shouldn't start spending that money quite yet. I'm betting an appeals court will reverse.The case for the plaintiffs sounds pretty thin to me but the thing with the passport could be a hang-up. AND...if the clerk knew the Eslinger kid, I can't help but believe he knew the kid was a nut case.It'll be interesting to see how this one goes. Good morning Josey1. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to monitor this and advise us of the outcome. If you are caught or killed.......TOUGH S---.Mudge
    Anyone who CAN carry, SHOULD carry!Let me update that.Anyone who CAN carry, BETTER carry.[This message has been edited by mudge (edited 09-14-2001).]
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