Defendant's Attorney: Not Available

Description: Alexandria, Louisiana personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued the defendants on negligence theories.

McKennedy Armstead was an inmate serving a sentence for a narcotics conviction at the Rap ides Parish Detention Center in Alexandria. While on a work detail for the City of Alexandria's Lights Department, Mr. Armstead stole a City truck. He went to his mother's house (abandoning the truck two blocks away) and took a gun. At that time, Mr. Armstead's cousin, Antonio Calhoun, drove him to the Grant Parish home of his former girlfriend, Johnnie Ketchun Kite.

Mr. Calhoun subsequently encountered law enforcement officers who were searching for Mr. Armstead. He informed them Mr. Armstead and Ms. Kite were dating and that he believed the two were inside her home. Based on this information, law enforcement officers arrived at Ms. Kite's home with a search warrant. They entered the home and found Mr. Armstead and Ms. Kite dead from gunshot wounds in an apparent murder-suicide.[1]

Thereafter, plaintiffs, on behalf of Ms. Kite's minor children, filed the instant wrongful death action against several parties, including the City of Alexandria and its employees, Earl Williams, Sr. and Henry Jacobs (collectively referred to hereinafter as "City"). Plaintiffs alleged, in part, that the City's negligence caused Ms. Kite's death as Mr. Armstead was under its supervision.

The City moved for summary judgment. It argued Mr. Armstead was not in the process of escaping when the murder-suicide occurred, and it was not an integral part of the escape process. Rather, it claims Mr. Armstead completed his escape when he reached the safe haven of his mother's home, and the murder-suicide was a purely personal decision unrelated to the escape. Therefore, the City maintained the risk of harm encountered by Ms. Kite did not fall within the scope of the duty owed by the City.

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"The leading case addressing the scope of the duty to protect the public from escaped inmates is Wilson v. State Dept. of Public Safety and Corrections, 576 So.2d 490 (La. 1991). In that opinion, we explained that although prison authorities have a duty to prevent inmates from escaping, that duty is intended to protect persons from being harmed by escaping inmates while they are in the process of escaping. Id. at. 493. We emphasized that the duty is not intended to protect persons from harm inflicted by inmates who have already escaped and who subsequently commit tortious acts in the furtherance of their own pursuits. Id. Rather than looking to foreseeability or the proximity of time and distance between the escape and the escapee's offense that caused the injury to his victim, we reasoned the proper question to be answered in determining the scope of the duty is whether the offense occurred during, or as an integral part of, the process of escaping. Id."

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Legal issue Is the City of Alexandria liable for the wrongful death of an individual caused by an escaped inmate who was no longer in the process of escaping?
Headnote

TORT LAW. WRONGFUL DEATH. The case considers whether the City of Alexandria is liable for a wrongful death claim arising from a murder-suicide involving an escaped inmate, focusing on whether the harm caused was within the scope of the city's duty to prevent inmate escapes and whether the inmate's actions were an integral part of the escape process.

CIVIL PROCEDURE. SUMMARY JUDGMENT. The judgment addresses the granting of a summary judgment in favor of the City of Alexandria, establishing the requirement that plaintiffs must provide specific factual evidence of a genuine issue for trial regarding the city's duty of care related to the escape and subsequent actions of an inmate.

Key Phrases Wrongful death action. Summary judgment. Escaped inmate. Murder-suicide. Scope of government's duty.

Outcome: Affirmed

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Defendant's Experts:

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