$1.1 Billion Verdict for Child Left Brain-Damaged by Oil-Fortune Heir
After trial: As of mid-2026 the trial court had not yet entered final judgment on the March 2026 verdict, and Brooks's own attorneys expected an appeal along with post-trial motions to reduce the award. Plaintiff's counsel said Brooks has the financial capacity to pay but predicted the family will likely settle for less before any appeal concludes.
Won by The Buzbee Law Firm.
A Dallas jury awarded $1.1 billion against a trust fund heir who beat a 2-year-old into a permanent vegetative state in 2021, a verdict the firm calls the largest child-assault award in U.S. history.
What happened
In April 2021, Charles Edwin Brooks Jr., an unemployed beneficiary of an oil fortune traced to one of Humble Oil's original investors, was left to babysit a 2-year-old boy in Dallas. He called the child's mother to say the toddler was unresponsive. When she demanded a video call, she saw her son barely moving. Brooks refused to call emergency services and, when she called 911 herself, gave first responders three different accounts of what had happened: a fall from a kitchen table, a tumble down stairs, and a car accident. Paramedics found adult bite marks on the boy's legs.
The child was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He spent months in a medically induced coma in the ICU, sustained a severe brain bleed and traumatic brain injury, and suffered extensive organ and neurological damage. He is now 7 years old, bedridden, unable to walk or communicate, and dependent on a breathing machine around the clock. His physicians expect that level of care to continue for the rest of his life.
Brooks was arrested eleven days after the assault. He later fled but was recaptured. In 2023 he pleaded guilty to injury to a child and was sentenced to 40 years in the Texas Department of Corrections.
The child's mother, Madison Ball, retained Tony Buzbee, Colby Holler, and Hall Sasnett of The Buzbee Law Firm, alongside co-counsel David Fortney and Darren Anderson. The civil case was tried before Judge Dale Tillery in the 134th District Court of Dallas County. Plaintiff counsel argued that Brooks's wealth gave him the means to obstruct and delay, and that the punitive award had to reflect the full scope of the harm he caused.
On March 26, 2026, the jury returned $291 million in compensatory damages after a full day of deliberation, then added $810 million in punitive damages in under 30 minutes, for a total of $1.1 billion, as reported by The Texas Lawbook and CBS News Texas. The Buzbee Law Firm has said it is the largest child-assault verdict in United States history. No reduction or remittitur was reported at the time of publication.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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