San Diego Jury Returns $106 Million in the Fentanyl Murder of Greg de Villers

On November 6, 2000, Greg de Villers, 26, died at his San Diego apartment from acute fentanyl intoxication. His wife, Kristin Rossum, was a toxicologist at the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. Investigators found rose petals scattered near his body, a detail that drew comparisons to the film "American Beauty" and gave the case its nickname. Rossum was having an affair with her supervisor at the office. In November 2002 a jury convicted her of first-degree murder, and she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Greg's family filed a wrongful death suit and hired John Gomez to try it. The defendants were Rossum and the County of San Diego, her employer. Gomez argued that the County's failures helped make the killing possible. It had not caught Rossum's earlier drug history when it hired her, it did not stop the theft of fentanyl and other drugs from its own evidence supply, and it placed her in a setting where she learned exactly how lethal those drugs could be.

The case was tried to a jury in San Diego County Superior Court. Jurors found for the family on the negligence theories and assigned 75 percent of the fault to Rossum and 25 percent to the County. They awarded $6 million in compensatory damages, $4.5 million charged to Rossum and $1.5 million to the County.

Then came the punitive phase. The family asked for $50 million. The jury returned $100 million against Rossum, reasoning that she could earn as much as $60 million selling the rights to her story and should not be allowed to keep it. The figures combined for a $106 million result. Gomez acknowledged the family might never collect, saying the point was to make sure Rossum did not profit from the murder.

Two rulings later cut the number down. The trial judge found the $100 million punitive award too large under constitutional limits on the ratio between punitive and actual damages and reduced it to $10 million, leaving the $4.5 million compensatory amount against Rossum in place. The County appealed, and in October 2007 the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, reversed the judgment against the County and ordered judgment in its favor, erasing the $1.5 million.

Rossum is serving life without parole, and the appellate ruling left the County owing nothing.