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Jury awards $1.2-million in death of teenager

By MARCUS FRANKLIN
Published March 15, 2005

TAMPA - After burying her 16-year-old murdered son, Valerie Hayes contacted the American Red Cross and reported him missing. She searched for him at a Hillsborough County courthouse and a Tampa law firm.

Eventually, her family admitted her involuntarily to a mental hospital.

Paul, her husband, still wears their son's clothing and cologne, nearly five years after the killing.

Those personal details of how two parents grapple with their child's murder emerged during a weeklong civil trial against the operator of the downtown Tampa parking lot where Kevin Hayes, a Chamberlain High School junior, honor student and football player, was shot dead on July 20, 2000.

On Monday, a jury in Hillsborough Circuit Court ordered 717 Parking Services Inc. to pay the Hayeses $1.2-million in damages for pain and suffering. At the time of the shooting, the company operated the lot across the street from the Garage nightclub, 801 E Whiting St., where the 16-year-old had been clubbing before he was shot.

The six-member jury found four different parties to be negligent in Hayes' death, and divided the blame. It found the parking services company to be 20 percent negligent, the nightclub 40 percent, Paul Hayes 15 percent and Valerie Hayes 25 percent.

Lawyer Lyann Goudie, who represented the Hayeses, said she was considering appealing Hillsborough Circuit Judge Sam D. Pendino's decision to allow the Hayeses' names to be placed on the jury forms.

"I am pleased they (the parking company) were held responsible," said Goudie, who also expressed disappointment that the company wasn't held 100 percent negligent. "Maybe now they'll do the right thing and put some lights up there."

The Hayeses, who appeared in court Monday, declined to comment.

Only 717 was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which Paul Hayes filed on behalf of his son's estate, seeking $10-million in damages, $5-million each for him and his wife.

Hayes was an unintended victim in July 2000. A group of men at the Garage nightclub had argued over car rims. Later, outside the club, Jose Fabian Santiago, then 19, began firing a .38-caliber gun, killing Hayes and injuring another man. Santiago, found guilty of murder, was sentenced to life in prison.

During the trial, attorneys for Paul Hayes argued that 717 failed to provide adequate security, such as guards, lighting and other reasonable measures, to help prevent such a crime.

Defense attorneys repeatedly characterized Santiago as "undeterred and unpreventable," arguing that such security measures wouldn't have prevented Hayes' murder. The attorneys blamed the Garage nightclub for allowing Santiago back into the club despite his involvement in an altercation weeks earlier. They also blamed the parents for not knowing the whereabouts of their son. Hayes' mother believed her son was going to a movie and dinner and would return home by midnight, while his father also didn't know his son was going to a club, the lawyers said.

"I'm disappointed," said Jack Luks, the attorney for 717, which manages and leases 45 to 50 lots in the downtown area. "The evidence established that this particular assailant was not going to be deterred even by the security measures recommended by their expert."

Goudie said afterward: "There is no legal duty on the parents' part that was breached that would have them in any way, shape or form be held negligent."

--Marcus Franklin can be reached at mfranklin@sptimes.com or 727 893-8488.

[Last modified March 15, 2005, 01:06:08]