$2 Million Verdict Against Motel Where a Broken Door Reader Let a Killer In, Jury Puts Half the Blame on Motel
After trial: Reduced by the jury's own fault allocation, not by a court. The $4,000,000 verdict of February 21, 2025 assigned 50 percent of fault to the motel, so the amount cast to the motel is $2,000,000.
Won by Scott Chafin Law.
Lynda Palmer, 75, was working the night shift at the front desk of the Best Western Plus DeSoto Inn & Suites in Mansfield, Louisiana on April 12, 2021 when she was shot and killed in a robbery. The card reader that controlled entry to the hotel was broken, and although the surveillance cameras recorded the entire crime, nobody was monitoring them. On February 21, 2025 a DeSoto Parish jury awarded her two adult daughters $2,000,000 each and assessed 50 percent of the fault to the motel, leaving $2,000,000 cast to it.
What happened
Lynda Palmer was 75 and working the overnight shift as the desk clerk at the Best Western Plus DeSoto Inn & Suites in Mansfield, Louisiana. On April 12, 2021 a man came in to rob the hotel and shot her. She died. He was later convicted and sentenced to life.
The civil case her two adult daughters brought was about how he got in and why nobody saw him coming. The card reader that controlled entry to the hotel was broken, so the door did not lock and anyone could walk in. The property had surveillance cameras, and they captured the whole crime. Nobody was watching them.
The daughters settled with the company that operated the hotel on undisclosed terms and took the case against the Best Western parent to trial in the 42nd Judicial District Court in Mansfield, before Judge Amy Burford McCartney. On February 21, 2025 the jury awarded $2,000,000 to each daughter for her mother's wrongful death, $4,000,000 in all, and assessed 50 percent of the fault to the motel and the remainder to the murderer. Louisiana's comparative-fault rule makes each defendant liable only for its own share, so the amount cast to the motel is $2,000,000.
Scott J. Chafin Jr. and Marshall Johnston of what was then Gregorio Chafin & Johnston in Shreveport tried the case for the family. Richard G. Duplantier Jr. and Henry M. Weber of Galloway Johnson Tompkins Burr & Smith in New Orleans defended.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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