A federal jury on Thursday found Walmart negligent for selling a shotgun used in a suicide and awarded the family of the victim — who worked at the store — millions in damages.
The verdict followed a 10-day civil trial in Maryland that focused on communications among employees inside a Walmart store 45 miles south of Washington. The family of the 23-year-old who took his life, Jacob Mace, said store managers knew Mace was suicidal and did nothing to ensure that he couldn’t buy a gun from the store.
Walmart said the managers didn’t know Mace’s intentions and that he legally bought the gun after clearing a federal background check.
“The evidence was clear that Walmart knew Mr. Mace was suicidal and the gun should not have been sold,” said Kevin Sullivan, an attorney for the Mace family.
Mace died in November 2019. His family sued Walmart in April 2021 — litigation that was then moved from state to federal court. The nine-member jury — seven women and two men — began deliberating Wednesday afternoon. They were asked to sort through Walmart’s firearm sales policies, determine whether they were followed and weigh differing accounts inside the store of how widely Mace’s troubles were known.
The exact amount of damages to go to the family is still to be determined, according to Sullivan.
There were two kinds awarded: approximately $2.5 million in economic damages, meaning the financial support Mace could have brought in his lifetime, and $8 million in noneconomic damages, such as loss and mental anguish over his death. The latter category will be subject to a cap according to Maryland law, Sullivan said.
If Walmart were to appeal the verdict, Sullivan said, that would probably put a hold on any payments until the appeal is concluded.
Under the legal framework of the lawsuit, Walmart’s store managers served as “corporate agents” of the company, meaning if they knew he was suicidal, the corporation knew.
In closing arguments Wednesday, one of Walmart’s attorneys told jurors that the managers did not know of Mace’s intention to buy a gun.
“Walmart management acted appropriately at all times given the information it knew, when it knew it,” Kevin Schiferl told jurors during closing arguments.
He said Mace’s actions should be seen for what they were.
“Mr. Mace assumed the risk of harm by buying a gun and pulling the trigger, a decision that was his and his alone,” Schiferl said.
Walmart did not immediately provide a comment about the verdict or say whether the company would appeal. But a spokesperson earlier said the company’s thoughts continued “to go out to family and loved ones of Jacob Mace.”
“We are committed to being a responsible firearms dealer and take these allegations seriously,” the spokesperson added.
The trial mixed complicated legal questions with raw emotions. They were evident in the courtroom Thursday when at about 1:20 p.m. the jury foreperson delivered the verdict. Mace’s widow, Kayla Brady, and his mother, Debra McCreary, quietly cried. Both had testified during the trial.
“We are very grateful for the jury’s hard work and attention,” Mace’s family members said in a statement. “They recognized Jake had a disease — depression — which impacted his decision making. We are hopeful these retailers will include more training on mental health conditions and suicide prevention in the future.”
In closing arguments Wednesday, an attorney who represented the family, Anatoly Smolkin, bored in on a conversation inside the store on Nov. 9, 2019, six days before Mace’s death.
Mace was not working that day and sent two troubling text messages to a co-worker, Christina O’Shea.
“I feel broken,” the first text began. Mace said he’d been suicidal all week. “Nothing helps. I just want it to end. Goodbye.”
In the second text, Mace spoke more specifically about what he intended to do: “Slit wrists. Buy a gun.”
O’Shea testified that she spoke to the assistant manager, Brennan Jones, which Jones confirmed in his testimony. Exactly what was said remained in dispute.
But Jones confirmed that O’Shea told him she was concerned that Mace was suicidal and she was afraid he was going to hurt himself. Jones also confirmed that O’Shea asked whether there was some kind of blacklist Mace could be placed on that would prevent the store from selling him a gun.
Jones did take action after the conversation. He asked for the police to be called. He checked to see if there was such a list, but was told there was not. And when Mace returned to work later, Jones made sure he knew about the company’s counseling services and asked him how he was doing.
“I was just having a bad day, but everything’s fine,” Mace told him, according to Jones’s testimony.
“Okay,” Jones recalled telling Mace. “You know we were worried about you.”
Mace did not tell Jones that the day before, while off-duty, he had messaged a co-worker at Walmart who sold firearms.
“Does Walmart sell single shot shotguns?” he wrote.
“Yes,” he was told.
Eric McLaughlin, the firearm salesman known in the store as the “gun guy,” testified that he had no idea of Mace’s mental health struggles, which was confirmed by the Mace family’s attorneys.
On Nov. 15, 2019, after finishing his morning shift and while off work, Mace went to the gun counter and bought a 20-gauge Hatfield shotgun and a box of ammunition. He told McLaughlin he was buying the gun as a gift for his wife to get her back into shooting and hunting.
Mace’s family attorneys said the Nov. 9 exchange between Jones and O’Shea should have been shared with other store managers. The managers also were aware of Mace’s recent hospitalizations, according to the attorneys, which should have triggered concern and action.
‘They didn’t even do the easiest and the most basic thing they could have done,” Smolkin told jurors. “They didn’t tell Eric McLaughlin, the gun guy, the department manager responsible for selling firearms, that Walmart shouldn’t sell a gun to Jake Mace.”
His death rippled through the store. The assistant manager choked up during his testimony.
“Everybody was devastated,” Jones, the assistant store manager testified, his voice filling with emotion. “He was a great kid.”
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