Jury to continue deliberations Monday in civil case against Santa Fe, Texas, school shooter’s parents

The jury has been sent to deliberate after attorneys presented their closing arguments Friday in the civil trial of the parents of a Texas high school shooter, more than six years after their son killed eight students and two teachers.

Deliberations have begun after attorneys presented their closing arguments Friday in the civil trial of the parents of a Texas high school shooter, more than six years after their son killed eight students and two teachers. Survivors and family members of those who were gunned down at Santa Fe High School in May 2018 sued Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, accusing them of failing to act on their son’s declining mental state leading up to the shooting and failing to properly secure their guns. The parents testified they didn’t see any warning signs ahead of the shooting and they had locked up their firearms. A jury in Galveston, Texas, will determine if the parents are liable for negligence in connection with their son’s actions. Deliberations will resume at 9 a.m. Monday, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Clint McGuire, told CNN. The parents have not been charged with any crime, and the criminal trial of Dimitrios Pagourtzis – who was 17 at the time he fatally shot 10 and wounded 13 at the school, about 20 miles southeast of Houston – was delayed indefinitely after a judge found him mentally incompetent. He has been held at the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon since December 2019. The trial included emotional testimony from victims and their families, as well as Pagourtzis’ family members. The case has had echoes of the historic criminal trial of James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose son Ethan Crumbley killed four students and wounded six others and a teacher at his Michigan high school in 2021. His parents were convicted of manslaughter and each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.