$7.1 Million Verdict for Pedestrian Struck in Denver Crosswalk
Won by Bachus & Schanker, Personal Injury Lawyers | Denver Office.
A Denver jury awarded $7,110,624 to Deysi Cari after she was struck by a vehicle while crossing a marked crosswalk with the right-of-way, with the defendant having admitted liability before trial.
What happened
On a morning in the Eastmoor neighborhood of Denver, Deysi Cari was crossing the intersection of East Quincy Avenue and East Eastmoor Drive in a marked crosswalk when Natalie J. Vona Messersmith's vehicle struck her. Cari had the right-of-way. Messersmith did not contest that fact, and liability was admitted before the case went to the jury.
With fault off the table, the trial before Judge Jill Dorancy in Denver District Court (Case No. 2023 CV 31539) became a fight over the full scope of Cari's injuries and what she had lost. The trial ran from September 23 through October 1, 2024.
Darin Schanker and Michael Stegman of Bachus and Schanker, LLC led the plaintiff's trial team, joined by co-counsel Jessica Reynolds of Pendley, Baudin and Coffin, LLP and Zachary Wool of Barrios Wool, LLC. Together they built the damages case across nine days of testimony.
The jury returned a verdict of $7,110,624. With pre-judgment interest of $2,428,793.60 added, the total judgment entered against the defense reached $9,539,417.60. Law Week Colorado listed the result among its Top Verdicts of 2024, and TopVerdict.com ranked it the eighth-largest verdict in Colorado that year.
The Colorado Court of Appeals took up the matter under case number 25CA0185 in 2026. The appellate court affirmed the judgment.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.