DALLAS — An attorney for the parents of a Texas student accused of killing 10 people in a 2018 school shooting near Houston told trial jurors Friday that they didn’t know their son would have a psychotic breakdown. Lawyers for the victims say Dimitrios Pagourtzis gave his parents many signs that he needed help.
The victims’ lawsuit seeks to hold Pagourtzis and his parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, financially liable for the shooting at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018. They are pursuing at least $1 million in damages.
The jury was given the case just before 5 p.m. and was set to resume deliberating Monday morning.
Victims’ attorneys say the parents failed to provide necessary support for their son’s mental health and didn’t do enough to prevent him from accessing their guns.
“It was their son, under their roof, with their guns who went and committed this mass shooting,” Clint McGuire, representing some of the victims, told jurors during closing statements in the Galveston courtroom.
Authorities say Pagourtzis fatally shot eight students and two teachers. He was 17 years old at the time.
Pagourtzis, now 23, has been charged with capital murder, but the criminal case has been on hold since November 2019, when he was declared incompetent to stand trial. He is being held at a state mental health facility.
Lori Laird, an attorney for Pagourtzis’ parents, said their son’s mental break wasn’t foreseeable and that he hid his plans for the shooting from them. She also said the parents kept their firearms locked up.
“The parents didn’t pull the trigger. The parents didn’t give him a gun,” Laird said.
Crumbley case was first
In April, Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison by a Michigan judge after becoming the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. Pagourtzis’ parents are not accused of any crime.
Attorneys representing the victims’ families talked of the anguish of their loved one’s deaths, including the family of Sabika Aziz Sheikh, a 17-year-old Pakistani exchange student who wanted to be a diplomat.
The lawsuit was filed by relatives of seven of the people killed and four of the 13 who were wounded in the Santa Fe attack. Attorneys representing some of the survivors talked about the trauma they still endure, including Chase Yarbrough, who still has bullets embedded in his body.
Representing Pagourtzis, attorney Roberto Torres told jurors during the trial that while his client planned the shooting, he was never in control of his actions because of his severe mental illness. During his closing statements, he said Pagourtzis’ parents should have been paying closer attention.
Pagourtzis “did a monstrous thing, but he’s not a monster,” Torres said.
“You can’t make him the scapegoat here,” he said.
McGuire asked jurors to hold Pagourtzis accountable, saying there is ample evidence that he intended to do what he did. McGuire said Pagourtzis meticulously planned the shooting, opening fire in the art room where students would be trapped and it would be hard for police to reach him. He said Pagourtzis wrote in his journal that the idea of shooting his classmates and watching them “writhe on the ground in agony” was “exhilarating.”
Attorney: No red flags
McGuire said during closing statements that Pagourtzis was very depressed but carried out the shooting because he was filled with rage.
“He knew when he went to the school that what he was doing was wrong,” McGuire said.
He also said Pagourtzis recorded over 50 absences from school, rarely showered, became quieter and stayed in his room — all indicators of mental illness that his parents should have recognized.
Laird said during closing statements that the school record showed the parents weren’t notified of most of his absences. She showed recent family photos featuring the smiling teen and described his willing participation in a Greek dancing performance just before the shooting.
She told jurors during the trial that the couple hadn’t seen any red flags, knew nothing of his online purchases and didn’t know any of their weapons were missing.
