Murdered Missouri Woman's Children Awarded $30 Million Default Judgment
After trial: The $30 million was entered as an interlocutory default judgment on January 25, 2024, after Phelps and Norton failed to answer the wrongful death petition. There was no trial and no contested hearing. No appeal or motion to set the judgment aside has been reported, but Missouri's online case records (Case.net) are not machine accessible, so we could not confirm the docket after January 2024 or whether a final judgment was later entered. Both men are serving life sentences and neither is reported to have significant assets, so recovery of the $30 million from either defendant personally is unlikely; the judgment does qualify the children to apply to Missouri's tort victims' compensation fund, and any prison-era assets would be garnishable.
Won by Donelan Law, LLC.
Donelan Law filed the wrongful death suit that won a $30 million default judgment for the children of Cassidy Rainwater, who was killed in Dallas County, Missouri in 2021. James Phelps and Timothy Norton, the two men convicted of her murder, never answered the complaint, and the children, represented by Springfield attorney Amanda Johnson, waived a jury trial. On January 25, 2024, 30th Judicial Circuit Judge Mike Hendrickson reviewed the evidence of damages and entered an interlocutory default judgment against both men for $30 million. Both defendants are serving life sentences and neither is reported to have significant assets, so the children are unlikely to be paid anywhere near that figure by Phelps or Norton.
What happened
Cassidy Rainwater, 33, was reported missing from the Dallas County area of southwest Missouri in August 2021. The following month, James Phelps and Timothy Norton were arrested after an anonymous tipster sent the FBI photographs that appeared to show Rainwater held in a cage on Phelps' property near Lebanon. When investigators searched the property they recovered her remains, some of them in a deep freezer, and DNA analysis identified her as the victim.
Both men were charged with first-degree murder. Norton pleaded guilty, and prosecutors dropped charges of kidnapping and abandonment of a corpse as part of his plea. Phelps entered an Alford plea, accepting conviction without admitting guilt. Phelps was sentenced in April 2023 and Norton that June, each to life in prison. In October 2023, months after the criminal cases closed, Rainwater's children sued both men for wrongful death in Dallas County Circuit Court, claiming the loss of their mother's services, companionship, comfort, guidance and support, along with damages for what she suffered before she died.
Neither man answered the civil complaint. The children, represented by Springfield attorney Amanda Johnson, waived their right to a jury trial, and by staying silent the two defendants gave up theirs, so the case went to the bench on a motion for default. Judge Mike Hendrickson of Missouri's 30th Judicial Circuit assessed the evidence the children submitted on damages rather than seating a jury to hear it. On January 25, 2024, he entered an interlocutory default judgment against Phelps and Norton for $30 million.
The Springfield News-Leader, reporting from the court file, identified Donelan Law as the firm that filed the suit and Amanda Johnson as the lawyer representing Rainwater's children. The case never required a trial, and no defense was ever entered.
Winning a judgment and collecting one are different problems. Both men are in prison for life and neither appears to have significant assets, so the children are unlikely to see anywhere near $30 million from Phelps or Norton directly. The judgment still does work: the News-Leader reported that entry of the judgment is a prerequisite for applying to Missouri's tort victims' compensation fund, and that any assets the two men acquire while incarcerated would be subject to garnishment. Under Missouri law, anything recovered for the children while they are still minors is placed in a conservatorship, annuity or restricted account. No appeal or motion to set the judgment aside has been reported since.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Springfield News-Leader (Ryan Collingwood) via Yahoo News, Jan. 29, 2024: reports the $30 million interlocutory default judgment entered Jan. 25, 2024 by 30th Judicial Circuit Judge Mike Hendrickson, that the suit was filed by Donelan Law in Oct. 2023, that Amanda Johnson represented Rainwater's children, that the children waived a jury trial and the defendants did not respond, and that collection is unlikely though the judgment is a prerequisite for a tort victims' compensation fund application.
- 2.Springfield News-Leader via AOL, Jan. 29, 2024: same wire copy, corroborating the judgment amount and date, the judge, the October 2023 filing by Donelan Law, the garnishment point, and that recoveries for the children as minors go into a conservatorship, annuity or restricted account.
- 3.Associated Press via the Columbia Missourian, June 2023: Norton sentenced June 28, 2023 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder with kidnapping and abandonment-of-a-corpse charges dropped, and Phelps sentenced earlier in 2023 to life without possibility of parole on an Alford plea.
- 4.NBC News, June 28, 2023: independent reporting on the sentencings and the underlying facts, including the August 2021 missing-person report, the property near Lebanon, Missouri, the cage photographs sent to the FBI, and remains recovered from a deep freezer.
More proven verdicts from Donelan Law, LLC
All Donelan Law, LLC proven verdicts →A Greene County jury awarded Rachel Crook $50 million in a wrongful death suit against Lonnie Williams, the man convicted of murdering her 19-year-old daughter, MacKenna Milhon. Williams is serving life without parole, and the judgment almost certainly cannot be collected from him. Crook pursued the case anyway, and has applied to Missouri's Tort Victims' Compensation Fund for partial recovery.
Related wrongful death verdicts
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