Connecticut parents mount civil suit after son killed by cousin in W. Va.
WEST HARTFORD — Johnathan “Johnny” Adams was an avid athlete, an aspiring lawyer and a sunny kid who never let losses on the court or anywhere else dim his spirits, his foster father said Tuesday.
“He was one of those kids with a contagious personality,” Angel Jaquez said.
Jaquez and his wife, Janis, traveled from West Hartford to West Virginia last week to close a chapter in the ultimately sad story of their beloved boy, who was 14 when he was killed in 2020.
Austin Holmes-Evans, Johnny’s 18-year-old cousin, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison on June 22 in a West Virginia court. Jaquez said the sentence was acceptable, but added that he and his wife continue to pursue justice in a civil lawsuit contending negligence against Holmes-Evans’ parents.
When the COVID pandemic first hit Connecticut in March 2020, Johnny went to stay at the West Virginia farm of his aunt and uncle, Denise and Steven Holmes. At the time, West Virginia was relatively unaffected by the rapidly spreading virus and Angel Jaquez felt he would be safer there.
Johnny was supposed to finish middle school remotely and then return home and start freshman classes at Hall High School that fall. A passionate athlete, the New England Patriots fan planned to play football at Hall. He had played basketball for the town’s youth league on the 2019 championship team and was an active parishioner of the Hartford First Church of the Nazarene, according to the lawsuit his parents filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut that has been transferred to federal court in northern West Virginia.
“Johnny’s life was not without hardship,” the complaint said. “Yet, he was excelling academically and socially and developing into a caring and responsible young man with the help and influence of his foster family. Johnny had his entire life ahead of him.”
When Angel Jaquez entrusted
Steven and Denise Holmes with his son’s care, he did not know that their son, Austin, who was 16 when Johnny came to stay at the house, had been engaging in unspecified criminal activity, according to the federal suit that refers to Holmes-Evans as A.H.
Police and court officials in West Virginia would not discuss details of the case, citing Holmes-Evans’ age at the time of his arrest. But the lawsuit says that some time before July 18, 2020, Johnny discovered that his cousin was involved in a burglary and threatened to tell Holmes-Evans’ parents.
Johnny was last seen on July 11, 2020 around 11 p.m., according to the Hampshire County Sheriff ’s Office. The family noticed him missing the next morning and called police. A multi-agency search of woods and a lake involving dozens of personnel and a dive team ended on July 18 when the teenager’s body was found in a shallow grave amid heavy brush.
The sheriff ’s office announced at the same time that a 16-year-old relative of the dead boy had been arrested on a burglary charge and that police had a suspect in the killing, although they did not link the suspect to the burglary arrest at the time.
The suit says Holmes-Evans had “gained access to a firearm and chased Johnny out of the house. A.H. caught up to Johnny and brutally beat him. Finally, and most tragically, A.H. killed Johnny with a single gunshot wound to the head.”
The federal lawsuit contends that Steven and Denise Holmes, who could not be reached Tuesday, failed in their duty to keep their nephew safe. They were responsible for monitoring their son and ensuring that firearms on the property were properly stored and not accessible to the juvenile, the suit stated.
“It was reasonably foreseeable that a loaded firearm, or a firearm and ammunition easily accessible to an emotionally charged young man ... could kill someone,” the complaint stated.
The suit seeks compensatory and general damages to be determined at trial.