Jury awards just four cents to family of slain Black man

Shot by police in his own garage but blamed for being drunk

Jurors who awarded only 4 cents to the family of a Black man fatally shot in his home by a deputy expressed confusion about the court’s instructions as they struggled to reach a verdict.

Notes sent to the judge show the jurors said they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision before finally finding 30-yearold Gregory Hill Jr. 99 per cent responsible for his death, because he was drunk when a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputy shot him.

Hill’s fiancée called the verdict a “slap in the face,” and the family’s lawyer is preparing an appeal.

Hill was in his garage in the South Florida city of Fort Pierce, listening to loud music when a nearby parent called in the complaint in 2014.

According to court documents, deputies responded and Hill eventually raised his garage door to answer them, then lowered it again. A deputy then fired through the door, hitting Hill three times. Deputies testified that they saw Hill holding a weapon. An unloaded gun was found in the dead man’s back pocket

sheriff ’s statement said Deputy Christopher Newman was “placed in a very difficult situation, and like so many fellow law enforcement officers must do every day, he made the best decision he could for the safety of his partner, himself, and the public given the circumstances he faced.”

There were two claims the jury had to decide: a federal civil rights claim, and a state-law claim of negligence. Attorney John Phillips suggested that the wording of the instructions may have confused the jurors.