Mississippi Jury Awards $12 Million to Victim of Night Club Shooting

February 11, 2010

A jury has awarded $12 million to a former Mississippi Valley State University basketball player made a paraplegic by a stray bullet at an Itta Bena nightclub in 2003.

Michael Archie was shot at Club Focus on Jan. 26, 2003, after a fight he was not involved in broke out on the dance floor.

The Greenwood Commonwealth reported Circuit Judge Richard Smith had already ruled that one of the two defendants in the case, Club Focus owner Rosie Meeks Brown, was liable in the case.

The second defendant, security guard Johny King, was found liable in the case by the jury.

The jury awarded $12 million in compensatory damages and $1 per defendant in punitive damages.