A Gadsden County jury rendered a verdict of nearly $779.4 million in a wrongful death case arising from the 2023 shooting death of security guard, Lewis Butler, during an armed robbery at an internet cafe in Havana, Florida. The cafe's owners were found liable for failing to address known security risks and report an earlier robbery at the same business.
Butler was working as a security guard at the cafe in November 2023 when armed robbers entered. He pushed a cashier out of the way to shield her and was shot eight times. The cashier was wounded but survived. The gunman, later identified as Kevontae (also reported as Tyrone) Washington, was convicted of first-degree murder and related charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The wrongful death lawsuit, brought on behalf of Butler's widow and family, alleged that the cafe's owners and operators, including Fortune MGT 2023 LLC and Manishkumar Patel, had failed to report an armed robbery at the same location several weeks earlier and ignored ongoing security threats, in part because they did not want law enforcement scrutiny of alleged illegal gambling operations at the location.
Evidence presented in the civil case included claims that the firearm used to kill Butler had been stolen during the unreported earlier robbery and that the owners did not implement additional safety measures after that incident, thereby creating conditions that allowed the fatal second robbery to occur.
Jurors allocated the total award across several categories of damages, including more than $12,000 for medical and funeral expenses; more than $4 million for the loss of Butler's support and services to his family; $225 million for the loss of his companionship and protection; and $550 million for the pain and suffering experienced by his widow, Kimberly Butler. The verdict believed to be the largest in Gadsden County history.
In public remarks after the verdict, civil rights attorney Ben Crump characterized the decision as a powerful message about corporate responsibility for safety in high-risk businesses. Kimberly Butler described her husband as a selfless man devoted to protecting others and called on state officials to crack down on illegal internet gambling cafes and strengthen oversight and penalties for their owners and operators.
Source: https://www.wctv.tv/2025/12/09/jury-awards-700-million-wrongful-death-verdict-2023-murder-security-guard-havana/
Commentary
The duty to report criminal activity to law enforcement is not only a legal obligation in many circumstances but also a core element of a corporate governance framework.
When incidents such as theft, robbery, fraud, or workplace violence are minimized, concealed, or managed solely "in-house," organizations increase their exposure to civil liability, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational damage because others will view will that leadership chose secrecy over safety and created a foreseeable risk of further harm.
Proactively reporting criminal activity demonstrates a commitment to protecting employees, customers, and the public. It also preserves critical evidence through timely law enforcement involvement, and sends a clear deterrent message to offenders and would-be imitators that the organization will not tolerate criminal conduct on its premises or within its operations.
From a loss prevention perspective, failures to report often lead to repeating events: offenders are not identified, patterns are not shared with local authorities, and risk assessments are based on incomplete data. This can result in later incidents that plaintiffs claim were entirely preventable had the earlier criminal activity been reported.
The last takeaway is that courts and juries increasingly examine what executive management knew, when they knew it, and what they chose to do with that information. A documented pattern of underreporting or non-reporting can be portrayed as deliberate indifference to known dangers. This can undermine defenses and support claims for negligent security, negligent hiring or retention, and punitive damages.
