Fulton County Jury and Judge Award Mother $8.2 Million After Pawn-Shop Pistol Fatally Shot Her 14-Year-Old Son
After trial: The judge ordered the parties to negotiate a settlement to avoid an appeal after the November 2014 verdict. We found no appellate opinion and could not confirm whether a settlement was reached or whether any of the $8.2 million has been collected.
Won by Bell Law Firm.
In November 2014 a Fulton County State Court jury awarded Linda Bullard $6 million against Macon pawn shop owner Ronald Richardson, who sold and then mishandled the pistol that killed her 14-year-old son. The judge separately entered a $2.2 million default judgment against Bruce Jennings, owner of the now-defunct maker Bryco Arms, who did not appear at trial. Together the two awards total $8.2 million.
What happened
In 2000, a young woman named Tiffany Hardware, frightened after someone followed her home, bought a new, inexpensive .380-caliber Bryco/Jennings pistol from Ronald Richardson, a family friend who owned Shurlington Jewelry and Pawn in Macon. Richardson had reportedly bought the gun in bulk a year earlier. According to Lloyd Bell, one of the attorneys on the plaintiff side, Hardware worked nights at a call center and wanted the gun for protection.
A few weeks later a friend tried to fire the pistol and it jammed. Hardware took it back to Richardson. He could not move the locked slide. He removed the magazine but did not clear the live round in the chamber, so the gun was left cocked and loaded. He zipped it into a case and told her to bring it back the following Monday, when his 'gun guy' would be in the shop.
That evening, at home, Hardware set her purse and other items on the dining room table and dropped the case along with them. The pistol fired. Her 14-year-old brother was shot in the stomach. Hardware and a friend drove him to the hospital, and he died, with his sister holding him.
The boy's mother, Linda Bullard, sued Richardson and Bruce Jennings, the owner of Bryco Arms, which had made the pistol and is now defunct. A trade-blog account of the case notes that Bryco recalled its Model 38 pistol in 2001 over concerns that it could fire when dropped, though it could not say whether this gun was one of the recalled units. The suit was tried before a Fulton County State Court jury over about a week. Richardson testified that he would never recommend the gun to a member of his own family. Jennings did not appear.
The jury deliberated for about seven hours and found Richardson at fault, awarding Bullard $6 million. State Court Judge Wesley Tailor then entered a $2.2 million default judgment for Bullard against Jennings. The two awards combine for $8.2 million. Richardson did not return a reporter's phone message after the verdict.
Judge Tailor ordered both sides to negotiate a settlement in order to avoid an appeal. Neither report of the verdict says whether the parties reached one.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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