A Maine woman has sued a Colorado Springs man who allegedly exchanged rent for sex with a prostitute who used the man’s gun to kill her son.
Lakewood attorney Christopher Alger has filed the civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver against Howard Earl Box Jr. on behalf of Victoria Cunningham, the mother of Daniel Cressey.
Cunningham is seeking monetary damages against Box, who was 48 at the time that Jessy Jo Jewel Barnes, then 19, fatally shot Cressey, 20, with Box’s 9mm Glock pistol on May 28, 2014.
and was sentenced to 45 years in prison on Nov. 4 in the murder of Cressey.
Box, who has a phone number that doesn’t accept incoming calls, could not be reached for comment Monday.
The lawsuit says that Box allowed Barnes to have access to his gun even though he knew she was dealing drugs, turning tricks and was concerned that she would shoot Cressey because she believed he stole a ring that belonged to her.
“Defendant continued to allow Ms. Barnes to use his pistol despite realizing her propensity toward violent, erratic behavior,” says the lawsuit, filed last week in federal court. “Defendant had a duty to control his pistol in a manner that would not present an unreasonable risk of injury to others.”
Box failed to warn Cressey or attempt to get his gun from Barnes, the lawsuit says. He also ordered Barnes to get Cressey’s body out of his house and helped dispose of it. He allegedly drove with Barnes to a bridge over Fountain Creek in northern Pueblo County, helped take Cressey’s body out of the car and threw it into the water, the lawsuit says.
By disposing of Cressey’s body, Box “helped ensure that Mr. Cressey would not survive,” the lawsuit says. He failed to contact emergency medical officials. His conduct includes “atrocious behavior beyond all possible bounds of decency and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”
Cressey’s body was found in Fountain Creek near Pinon Bridge in Pueblo County.
Box was charged with accessory to a crime and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and eight years on probation, according to Colorado court records.
