Nine-Year-Old Killed on Seaford Road Leads to $1.37 Million Verdict
After trial: The trial court vacated the jury's $350,000 award to the estate for conscious pain and suffering in December 2025, reducing the gross $1,718,069.44 verdict to a $1,368,069.44 judgment plus interest; the rest of the verdict, including the $1,300,000 to the mother for mental anguish, was left standing. Prejudgment interest was set at 7.25 percent and post-judgment interest at 9.5 percent, and in February 2026 the court ruled that only Winder owes prejudgment interest because Delaware's interest statute was never triggered against McConnell. Winder's attempt to appeal the December ruling was dismissed by the Delaware Supreme Court in January 2026 as interlocutory, without prejudice to a new appeal once a final judgment is entered. No further appellate decision appears on the public record. Whether a final judgment has since been entered, whether a new appeal has been filed, and whether the judgment has been paid could not be independently confirmed as of this writing.
Won by Shelsby & Leoni, P.A..
In April 2018, a nine-year-old girl was struck and killed by a passing car after crossing German Road in Seaford, Delaware, to check the mail. The driver, Dwayne McConnell, admitted he was inattentive and fled the scene; the girl had been in the care of her mother's boyfriend, Bryan Winder, while her mother was at work. A Sussex County jury found the girl was not negligent, split fault 90 percent to McConnell and 10 percent to Winder, and returned a verdict of $1,718,069.44 for her mother and her estate. The trial judge later set aside $350,000 of that award for the estate's conscious pain and suffering claim, leaving a judgment of $1,368,069.44 plus interest. Winder's first attempt to appeal was dismissed as premature in January 2026, without prejudice to a new appeal once a final judgment is entered.
What happened
On April 12, 2018, a nine-year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother crossed German Road in Seaford to check the mailbox across the street from the house where they lived with their mother, Shequita Truitt, and Truitt's boyfriend, Bryan Winder. A car driven by Dwayne R. McConnell struck the girl. McConnell later admitted in court filings that he was inattentive and a proximate cause of the collision, and he fled the scene afterward. Winder's family rushed to help before paramedics arrived, and the girl was flown by helicopter to A.I. duPont Children's Hospital, where she died two days later.
Truitt testified that she had told Winder never to let the children cross the road to get the mail while she was at work. The children's brother testified that Winder told them to go get it that day; Winder disputed this. A Sussex County jury ultimately found that Winder owed the girl a duty of care, that he breached it, and apportioned fault 90 percent to McConnell and 10 percent to Winder. The jury also found the girl herself was not negligent.
Witnesses at the scene testified the girl showed no signs of consciousness after impact, and doctors later determined she had suffered an internal decapitation. The only evidence offered on how much pain she may have felt came from the estate's medical expert, whose trial testimony describing a longer window of possible awareness went beyond what he had disclosed before trial. That gap became central after the verdict.
On March 21, 2025, following a four-day trial, the jury awarded Truitt $1,300,000 for mental anguish, $68,069.44 to the estate for medical bills, and $350,000 to the estate for the girl's conscious pain and suffering, a total of $1,718,069.44. Both defendants moved for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial. In a December 4, 2025 opinion, Superior Court Judge Craig A. Karsnitz denied the motion on liability, causation, comparative negligence, and alleged improper argument by plaintiffs' counsel, but granted it on the pain-and-suffering award, ruling that the evidence could not support a finding that the girl was conscious long enough to sustain that claim. He let the remaining $1,368,069.44 stand. The opinions list Gilbert F. Shelsby Jr., Robert J. Leoni, and James J. Meehan III of Shelsby & Leoni as the attorneys for Truitt and the estate.
A December 2025 order had already set prejudgment interest at 7.25 percent and post-judgment interest at 9.5 percent, but the defendants disputed who owed it. In a follow-up opinion on February 13, 2026, Judge Karsnitz held that only Winder owes prejudgment interest. Delaware's interest statute is triggered by a formal pretrial settlement demand, and the court found no such demand had ever been served on McConnell, so the statute never applied to him. Winder tried to appeal the December ruling to the Delaware Supreme Court, but the justices dismissed that appeal in January 2026 as interlocutory because no final judgment had yet been entered, leaving him free to appeal again once one is.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Delaware Superior Court, Dec. 4, 2025 memorandum opinion: counsel of record (Gilbert F. Shelsby Jr. and James J. Meehan III of Shelsby & Leoni), the jury's verdict breakdown, and the order vacating the $350,000 pain-and-suffering award
- 2.Delaware Superior Court, Feb. 13, 2026 memorandum opinion: counsel of record (adds Robert J. Leoni of Shelsby & Leoni), confirms the $1,368,069.44 total judgment, recites the 7.25% prejudgment and 9.5% post-judgment interest rates set in December 2025, and rules that only Winder owes prejudgment interest
- 3.Delaware Supreme Court, Jan. 23, 2026 order: dismisses Winder's appeal as interlocutory, without prejudice to a future appeal once final judgment is entered
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