Nearly $100M settlement reached in wrongful death suit

Summary

• Wrongful death lawsuit settled for $95 million before trial.
• Case stemmed from a 2023 incident involving a store manager‘s restraint of a customer.
• Store manager was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Kansas.
• Settlement resolved claims brought on behalf of the decedent’s surviving family members.

A nearly $100 million settlement was reached in wrongful death suit out of Jackson County Circuit Court.

The $95,000,348 settlement was reached March 29 in the confidential suit stemming from the death of a Black man in September 2023.

The case occurred in Kansas City, Kansas, involving two young Black men who were accused of stealing from a national major retailer.

The incident happened when a store manager approached the two men to try to keep them from leaving the store and followed them outside. Once outside the store, the store manager grabbed the decedent from behind and placed him in a headlock. The other man took the goods he had stolen out of his sweatshirt and placed them on the ground, forfeiting the items. He was then tackled.

The decedent in the chokehold was choked to the point of almost being unconscious before the store manager straddled the decedent and continued to lock him in a chokehold, ultimately causing the decedent to lose consciousness. The store manager then instructed employees to use bungee cords and zip ties to hog-tie the decedent. The decedent’s upper back was sat on for over six minutes until he died by suffocation.

The police who responded to the scene were unable to give the decedent CPR due to him being hog-tied. A later search of his body revealed that he had no stolen goods or weapons on him.

The store manager was tried and convicted in Wyandotte County, Kansas, on involuntary manslaughter charges in July 2025. The decedent leaves a family of surviving heirs.

There were five heirs to the decedent involved in the settlement. Thomas J. Dickerson of Dickerson Oxton Law Firm in Kansas City, along with Suzanne Hale Robinson and Rico Robinson of Hale Robinson &Robinson, represented two of the surviving heirs. Nuru Witherspoon of The Witherspoon Law Group represented two heirs and Michael Wyatt of Mann Wyatt Tanksley in Hutchinson, Kansas, represented one heir. Daniel Kopp, also with Dickerson Oxton, was another attorney for the plaintiffs.

The defendant was represented by Byron Bowles of MVP Law in Kansas City.

There were pretrial demands: An initial demand at mediation for $195 million and the last demand of $95,000,384 million, which was accepted by the defendants and their insurance carriers.

According to Dickerson, the case is believed to be the highest, if not one of the highest, pretrial settlements for the wrongful death of a Black man in U.S. history.

“Overall, there was a lot of complicated issues to navigate in this case … we took a very proactive strategy early to find out what those complicating factors would be, and to address those proactively, and all of the other lawyers involved were very cooperative with us in working on those complicated issues to present a united front to get this across the finish line,” Dickerson said. “It was a terrible tragedy, but we were hoping that this serves as an example for other cases … like this, so No. 1, the legal community knows the true value of the death of an African American male, and also we hope that this brings light to the situation, so this doesn’t happen to anybody else … That’s really what the family is concerned about the most … that this serves as an example, so this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

Counsel for the defense declined to comment.

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Wrongful death

Amount of settlement: $95,000,348

Type of action: Wrongful death

Venue: Jackson County Circuit Court

Case Number/Date: Confidential/March 29, 2026

Judge: Bryan Round

Injuries: Death

Last Pretrial Demand: $95,000,348

Insurer: Confidential

Caption: Confidential

Plaintiffs’ Attorneys: Thomas J. Dickerson, Dickerson Oxton Law Firm, Kansas City; Suzanne Hale Robinson, Hale Robinson &Robinson, Kansas City; Rico Robinson, Hale Robinson & Robinson, Kansas City; Nuru Witherspoon, The Witherspoon Law Group, St. Louis; Michael Wyatt, Mann Wyatt Tanksley, Hutchinson, Kansas; Daniel A. Kopp, Dickerson Oxton Law Firm, Kansas City

Defendants’ Attorneys: Byron Bowles, MVP Law, Kansas City