A jury this week assigned half the liability for a 7-Eleven clerk’s murder to the Mental Health Center of Denver, which released a mentally ill patient with a violent history who committed the crime.
The Denver jury on Thursday awarded Natnael Mulugeta’s father compensatory damages of $1.1 million and punitive damages of $5.2 million, as well as $23,751 for burial expenses.
May 2, 2009, as he worked at the convenience store, at 567 E. Louisiana Ave. Police arrested Dale Wayne Baylis, 46, who was taken into custody outside his mother’s home, a few minutes’ walk from the store.
The Mental Health Center of Denver released a statement Friday night expressing sympathy to Mulugeta’s family and calling the shooting “an unthinkable tragedy.” It also said Baylis was solely responsible.
“The court’s ruling is unfortunate in that we don’t believe it properly reflects true accountability in this case,” the center said. “We will seriously consider an appeal.”
Baylis was for second-degree murder in Mulugeta’s death after a plea agreement.
In 2003, to stand trial for beating a 66-year-old neighbor.
He was sentenced to the state mental hospital in Pueblo. Until about five months before the murder, he was living at Princeton House, a psychiatric residential home on the grounds of Fort Logan Mental Health Institute in Denver.
