$2 Million Settlement Due to Improper Applicant Screening by Management Company
Campbell V. Miami Mar, Inc., Et Al. | Mobile County, Alabama Circuit Court | CASE NO. 2-CV-2014-903206
On June 22, 2016, Cunningham Bounds obtained a $2,000,000 settlement on behalf of a family of a woman who was brutally murdered by her neighbor at a Mobile, Alabama apartment complex. On September 3, 2014, a 69-year-old mother and grandmother was stabbed to death and asphyxiated in her rental unit. The next day, another resident of the same complex was arrested on charges of murder and burglary.
Shortly thereafter, the neighbor pled guilty to both charges and was sentenced to life in prison. Five years before the murder, he applied for tenancy at the apartment complex. The neighbor admitted on that application that he was a convicted felon. At the time of his application, he had felony convictions for burglary, heroin possession, grand larceny, robbery, escape, cocaine possession, and had been in prison for nearly 15 years based on his habitual offender status. The property management company incorrectly listed the neighbor's identification information in their computerized system, so a third-party criminal background check came back clear. While he was a tenant, the neighbor was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon (machete), theft of property, and use/possession of drug paraphernalia.
Finally, nine months before the murder, he was arrested for physically threatening another woman at the same complex with a knife while under the influence of drugs and alcohol – an incident that was reported directly to management at the time that it happened. Despite this lengthy criminal history, and its persistence during his tenancy, the neighbor was never evicted from the premises.
