Michael Haggard and Christopher Marlowe, The Haggard Law Firm. Courtesy photos.

Michael Haggard and Christopher Marlowe of The Haggard Law Firm in Coral Gables negotiated a $2 million settlement with the owners of a Pensacola housing complex after a 12-year-old resident was abducted and murdered — allegedly by a frequent guest who was a convicted sex offender.

While most negligent security cases involve a string of prior robberies or other crimes at the complex in question, this one was different.

Haggard and Marlowe centered their arguments around how this small apartment community was managed, alleging it was unreasonable for a man staying there off-lease to have gone unnoticed for more than a year.

The victim, Naomi Jones, was last seen at the Aspen Village apartments May 31, 2017, when she went outside to collect a forgotten dog toy. Her body was found days later in a creek a few miles away.

Jones' accused killer, Robert Howard, had been at the complex that day, and police found that his phone data placed him in the area her body was found on the morning of June 1. Howard is awaiting trial in Escambia County. His attorney Spiro Kypreos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Howard's trial was delayed over COVID-19 concerns in March. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him but did confess to killing Jones during a police interview.

Jones' mother Shantara Hurry sued complex owners Aspen Village Acquisition LLC and management company Progressive Management of America Inc. in 2018, alleging her daughter wouldn't have been murdered if they would have sorted the legal residents from the illegal ones.

Howard worked in Alabama but allegedly spent most nights at his girlfriend's apartment. He'd also been convicted of raping two women and served 15 years in Alabama prison.

'Flipping a coin'

Haggard and Marlowe built their case around Howard and his pending criminal charges. They hired investigators to unearth everything they could about him and spoke to dozens of current and former Aspen Village residents.

"All the residents we met with, and former residents, all recognized this guy … as someone who was there every day and night, whose car was always parked there with out-of-state Alabama plates," Marlowe said.

The plaintiffs team also found a former maintenance employee who said he had warned management that between 30% and 40% of the people living there were off-lease.

"If you choose not to look into that, then you're going to really just be flipping a coin as to whether your people will be safe," Haggard said.

Defense attorney Miles A. McGrane IV of Conroy Simberg in Hollywood did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. But he countered that there was no way his clients could have known Howard was living at the apartment complex since Howard worked in Alabama and wasn't on the lease.

A "battle of how many nights he was there" ensued, according to Hurry's lawyers, who noted that, ironically, the complex had a parking problem and that Howard's decal-free car would have stood out.

"They had 40 apartments in total, all on one street. It wasn't difficult to spot a car that's there for a year or so, with out-of-state plates," Marlowe said. "Everybody knew this guy was there, so there's really no excuse for not going and knocking on the door and finding out, 'Who is this person who's here every day and night?' "

The solution for managers was simple, in Haggard's view, as it didn't require security cameras or guards.

" If you simply ran this guy's name, if you put it in a Google search, what would come up is that he's a pedophile," Haggard said. "When you really have simple solutions like that, defendants' insurers do not want to have a jury see how simple something could be and that you could prevent this awful, awful tragedy from occurring."

That investigation was the plaintiff's greatest asset in reaching a settlement, according to Marlowe.

"If we had not uncovered all the other tenants who saw him there all the time, our ability to prove that the defendant should have known if it cared to know would have been almost impossible to overcome," Marlowe said.

Aspen Village's owners agreed to settle for $2 million on March 19, while the management company settled confidentially afterwards.

'Mama bear'

Naomi Jones. Courtesy photo.

Jones loved to sing, dance and roller-skate, and took on a protective "mama bear" role for her younger brothers, according to Marlowe.

"Some of the residents that I spoke with who knew that family described her as being a bubbly, happy little girl and always a pleasure to see," Marlowe said. "Their hearts were broken not just because she was a little girl who died way too young in a way too horrible way, but uniquely she was a light, as more than one person described her to me."

Jones' mother and one of her brothers gave touching depositions, according to Marlowe, who said it's hard to put into words what they've been through.

"I think they're still trying to come to grips with it," Marlowe said. "I don't know that they ever will, but Shantara Hurry is an inspiration to her kids and she's doing her best to advocate in the community in Pensacola for crime victims."

Hurry hopes the settlement will help protect other children, according to her lawyers, by encouraging private businesses and apartment communities to up their standards so it's harder for criminals to succeed.

"She [Hurry] saw a personal responsibility to be part of solving a problem and really wanted to help displace predatory crime from apartment communities, and it's doable," Marlowe said.

For Marlowe and Haggard, working on such an emotionally heavy case pushed them to work even harder and longer.

"You're hoping you're saving future kids," Haggard said. "We wont know about it, but one day they'll be someone that kicks out somebody, and they would have saved a life."

 

Case: Shantara Hurry v. Aspen Village Acquisition

Case No.: 2018 CA 001991

Description: Premises liability

Filing date: Dec. 17, 2018

Settlement date: March 19, 2020

Plaintiffs attorneys: Michael Haggard and Christopher Marlowe, The Haggard Law Firm, Coral Gables

Defense attorneys: Miles A. McGrane IV, Conroy Simberg, Hollywood

Judge: Escambia Circuit Judge Coleman Robinson

Settlement amount: $2 million

 

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