Court upholds $1 million verdict against security firm

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld a $1 million jury verdict against a security firm on behalf of a man who was attacked in a Las Vegas Walmart parking lot in 2004 and who later died.

A three-judge panel of the court, in a decision dated Friday, declined to grant a new trial to Wackenhut of Nevada over the death of retired Air Force Maj. Michael Born who was wounded while changing his car’s headlight in the store parking lot. He later died from his injuries. Walmart was not found liable in the case.

According to closing arguments from the Born estate’s attorney at the 2011 trial, both Wackenhut and Walmart should have been more vigilant in protecting customers at the store, at Nellis and Charleston boulevards, a “high crime” area.

Attorney Mont Tanner told the jury that Las Vegas police responded to 2,683 calls to the store in the three years before career criminal Raymond Garrett sucker punched the 51-year-old Born. In the year prior, police were called to the store on average three times a day, for crimes ranging from grand larceny to assault and battery.

But the jury found only Wackenhut culpable in the case.

Wackenhut argued that the jury verdict was inconsistent, finding that Walmart’s security measures did not amount to negligence, but that the security company’s actions with regard to its contract with the store did cause the incident. But District Judge Mark Denton denied a request for a new trial, and the company appealed.

Contact Capital Bureau reporter Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Follow him on Twitter @seanw801.