{"id":10269,"date":"2025-07-30T09:57:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/2025\/07\/30\/coppell-mans-death-not-suicide-civil-jury-decides-in-awarding-his-family-206m\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T09:57:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:57:33","slug":"coppell-mans-death-not-suicide-civil-jury-decides-in-awarding-his-family-206m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/2025\/07\/30\/coppell-mans-death-not-suicide-civil-jury-decides-in-awarding-his-family-206m\/","title":{"rendered":"Coppell man\u2019s death not suicide, civil jury decides in awarding his family $206M"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Crews’ Death: A Dallas County Jury’s Verdict<\/h1>\n

Jonathan Crews was most likely killed by his former girlfriend, Brenda Kelly, a Dallas County jury decided in a civil trial Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my son\u2019s vindicated,\u201d Pam Crews said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crews\u2019 family turned to Dallas County civil courts in 2016 \u2014 two years after a Coppell police investigation failed to conclude whether Crews\u2019 death on Feb. 2, 2014, was a homicide or the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Dallas County Medical Examiner also could not determine a manner of death.<\/p>\n

Kelly, whose maiden name is Lazaro, called 911 about 11:30 p.m. and said Crews, 27, shot himself to prove his love to her. She has never been charged with a crime in connection with his death.<\/p>\n

Thomas Shaw, a lawyer for the Crews\u2019 family, asked jurors to award the family more than $129 million. The jury decided on $206 million, the Crews\u2019 lawyers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to appraise the diamonds in their life,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cJonathan\u2019s life was precious to his family, and this lady took it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pam Crews testified during the three-day trial that she wanted the story of her son\u2019s death to be a true story. The jury\u2019s verdict set the record straight, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted the record clear for Jonathan,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Investigation and Trial<\/h2>\n

The six-person jury deliberated about 2 1\/2 hours before reaching a unanimous verdict. In civil cases, only five votes of the jurors is needed to decide a verdict.<\/p>\n

Kelly, who leaned on her husband\u2019s chest during breaks in the trial, faced forward as the verdict was read. A member of her legal team wrapped her arm around her. Kelly didn\u2019t look toward the Crews family as they embraced and silently cried.<\/p>\n

Kelly did not speak to reporters as she left the courtroom. She maintains she didn\u2019t kill Crews, her lawyer Andrew Jee said. They haven\u2019t decided whether they\u2019ll appeal the verdict, he added.<\/p>\n

\"Defense <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019ve heard the jury\u2019s verdict, and Brenda maintains her innocence as she has from the beginning,\u201d Jee said. \u201cIt\u2019s important for people to realize the standard of proof and the amount of evidence needed in a civil court is very low. But we respect the decision of the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evidence and Testimonies<\/h3>\n

Plaintiffs in a civil trial have a much lower burden of proof than prosecutors must reach in a criminal trial. Jurors had to determine there was a chance just more than 50 percent that Kelly killed Crews, or \u201cmore likely than not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a criminal case, jurors must find beyond a reasonable doubt to convict.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Crews\u2019 lawsuit accused Kelly of killing Crews and spinning a story that he shot himself. They pointed to inconsistent statements that friends of Kelly said she told them. One friend said Kelly told him Crews shot himself in his head. Another friend said Kelly told her he shot himself in his chest.<\/p>\n

Darrell Robertson, a retired Houston police detective, testified for the Crews family and said Crews would have had to contort his body to inflict the wound on the left side of his chest. Adding to his theory, Crews had seen a doctor two days prior about a strain to his right shoulder. Robertson said \u201cit defies common sense\u201d that Crews would<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Crews’ Death: A Dallas County Jury’s Verdict Jonathan Crews was most likely killed by his former girlfriend, Brenda Kelly, a Dallas County jury decided in a civil trial Friday. \u201cI feel like my son\u2019s vindicated,\u201d Pam Crews said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I wanted.\u201d Crews\u2019 family turned to Dallas County civil courts in 2016 \u2014 two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/DLWIDIMA6VCGDESWUNXH7O25RA.jpg?auth=3cfcdb5d6a9a7eb1489dc3021c0b094bf1f0fe26c314055714be67f0eb6702c4&quality=80&width=1200&height=630&smart=true","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10272,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269\/revisions\/10272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}