Brody
BOISE, Idaho – An Idaho property owner isn’t liable for a gruesome murder committed by her grandson, who mutilated and ate a groundskeeper.
The Idaho Supreme Court last week affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against Mary Russell and Antelope Mountain Resort that stemmed from the 2021 killing of David Flaget. Russell’s grandson James had a history of severe mental illness and violence before she let him move to her 57-acre property in Clark Fork, where Flaget worked.
James thought Flaget was a trespasser on a September 2021 morning and murdered him. After eating parts of the corpse, he stuffed the rest of Flaget’s remains in Flaget’s truck. James was charged with first-degree murder and cannibalism, eventually agreeing to life in prison in exchange for a second-degree murder plea.
The civil lawsuit brought by Flaget’s family charged the Russell family and Antelope Mountain Resort with wrongful death, emotional distress and mishandling of a body, but the Russells defeated those claims in the trial court.
Not only did they win again at the Idaho Supreme Court, the justices ordered Flaget’s family to pay some of their attorneys fees for pursuing a frivolous appeal.
“The Flaget heirs attempt to equate control over Flaget’s work with ‘custody and control’ over his person, arguing that because Mary Russell directed his tasks, he must also have depended on her for protection,” Justice Robyn Brody wrote.
“Their reasoning is flawed… The nature of Flaget’s duties as a groundskeeper did not entail a loss of his ability to ensure his own safety. True, Mary Russell may have been Flaget’s supervisor, but she did not exercise custody over Flaget in the way, for example, an airline does over a flight attendant.”
Flaget was 70 years old when he was killed by blunt force trauma to his head and neck. Officers found his flesh in James Russell’s apartment.
The Russells, a wealthy mining family, had taken James in after three separate instances in which he attacked two other groundskeepers on their property in Montana, his father and cops and a cellmate in jail. They blamed a brain injury during a martial arts competition when James was around 30 years old for mental problems like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
