A Fort Worth jury last Thursday slapped a $166 million judgment against the daughter and son-in-law of a North Texas woman who was killed in 2014 for the proceeds of life insurance policies totaling $5 million.
A 12-person Tarrant County jury found that Mark and Virgina Buckland were central to a conspiracy that led to the murder of 69-year-old Anita Fox, who was cleaning a home in Colleyville at the time she was stabbed to death by two members of a nomadic ethnic clan known as the Irish Travellers.
The couple has never been charged criminally in the murder, but older media reports indicate that they have been under investigation by the FBI.
The jury heard four days of testimony and legal arguments and then deliberated for three hours before ruling against the Bucklands. The jurors awarded $80 million in actual damages and $86.37 million in punitive damages.
A lawyer for Al Fox III, Ms. Fox’s son and executor of her estate, said his team was “exceptionally proud” to bring closure to Mr. Fox.
“The main concern from the start was to make sure the Bucklands would not profit from their actions,” said Matthew McCarley, a partner at the Dallas firm Fears Nachawati. “Thanks to the jury’s understanding that they acted willfully in putting into motion the events that led to her death, we exceeded those objectives. There is no possible way they will ever be able to get a dime from the estate.”
In the verdict, which is believed to be the largest so far this year in Tarrant County, jurors found the Bucklands crafted an insurance scheme in which they would be the sole beneficiaries of a series of policies – some of which Ms. Fox did not even know she had.
Following the recommendation from an insurance agent, the couple allowed Pat Gorman to become a third-party investor in the policies. Looking for immediate returns on his investment, Gorman and his son, both members of the Irish Travellers, allegedly stalked and eventually murdered Ms. Fox at the Colleyville home.