Jury finds apartment manager liable for $4M in fatal shooting
Daily Report
Greg Land
25 July 2017

A Columbus jury delivered a $4 million post-apportioned award to the parents of a man killed during an early-morning party at a Columbus apartment complex, holding the management company liable for 90 percent of the judgment while dividing the rest between the deceased and his nondefendant killer.

The pre-apportioned award includes $2.5 million in punitive damages against defendant McCorlew Realty Inc.

Shiver Hamilton partner R. Scott Campbell said the highest defense offer to settle pretrial was $25,000.

Because there was no response to a statutory offer to settle for $780,000 shortly after the suit was filed in 2015, he and firm colleague Daniel Beer will seek attorney fees and expenses under Georgia's offer of judgment statute, under which a party that declines a settlement offer and then loses at trial by at least 25 percent more than the rejected offer may have to pay the other party's fees from the date of the offer.

Defense attorney Lee Welborn of Marietta's Downey & Cleveland was not immediately available, but Campbell credited him for holding the award down by pointing out that the decedent, Markeese Hodge, had a problematic criminal background.

"To their credit, the defense was able to interject that somewhat harmful evidence, and I think it helped keep the verdict down," Campbell said.

According to Campbell and court filings, the shooting occurred at a "problem unit" whose tenants received a 60-day eviction notice the previous month because of late night and early morning traffic, followed a few days later by a shooting that wounded three men.

"Even after that, McCorlew just called the Columbus police and said, 'Keep an eye on the property,'" Campbell said. The company also had no private security on site and no staff after hours.

Ten days after the first shooting, Hodge showed up at about 4 a.m. for a party thrown by resident Byron Martin, who lived there with his mother. Martin reportedly asked Jerome Chatmon to pat everyone down for guns before coming in, Campbell said.

Chatmon would later testify that Hodge became very upset and pulled a gun and that he fired in self-defense.

Shot twice, Hodge died 2.5 hours later, Campbell said. Chatmon was acquitted of criminal charges in Hodge's death.

Hodge's parents, Katrina Archie and James Hodge, and the estate administrator sued McCorlew in Muscogee County State Court in 2015. Campbell said there were no substantive settlement discussions except a demand for the company's $1 million Auto-Owners Insurance limit. The defense's $25,000 offer came after Chatmon's 2016 acquittal.

During a weeklong trial before Judge Benjamin Richardson, Campbell said the defense's case rested largely on two points: that Hodge did not live in the apartments and that Martin did not invite him to the party.

"They also blamed Markeese: 'He started the fight that ended his life,' was the refrain," Campbell said.

"We argued that, if you're in a property management business, you're required to act reasonably in response to what's going on out there," he said. "I think they knew they had a problem, and they were consciously indifferent to it."
The jury took about four hours to decide on liability Friday and that punitive damages were appropriate.

Richardson kept the jury from hearing about Hodge's criminal past for that portion. He allowed Welborn to introduce that evidence as well as a "somewhat threatening" photo of the deceased pretending to point a gun at the camera for the damages trial, Campbell said.

After about half an hour, the jury returned a verdict levying $1.5 million for Hodge's life, $500,000 in pain and suffering and $2.5 million in punitive damages. After apportioning Hodge's and Chatmon's liability, the total award came to $4.05 million.

"This was just a case where the property management and insurance company thought a jury would not value Markeese's life," Campbell said. "But, while they may not, juries do."

Campbell also spoke highly of Richardson's conduct of the case.
"He's one the most gracious judges I've seen," said Campbell. "In Muscogee County, they don't have staff attorneys, and he was really working hard to get it right."


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