Companies found negligent in strangling death

A jury awarded $750,000 each to the parents of a 21-yeard-old who was strangled to death in a Land O' Lakes restaurant's parking lot.

Jurors decided that Brickman Management Company and B&B Cash Grocery Stores were negligent for not providing security on the morning of Anthony Makowski's death. Brickman owns the McDonald's where Makowski was strangled to death by Martin Robles-Taylor during a fight April 24, 2005. B&B owns the property, at 2400 Land O' Lakes Blvd.

Prosecutors opted not to charge Robles-Taylor with a crime, ruling that Makowski's death was an excusable homicide.

In the plaintiff's closing statements Wednesday, attorney Curt Obront asked that jurors award Makowski's parents, Cathy and Wayne Makowski, between $3 million and $5 million each in damages. The Makowskis were awarded a total of $1.5 million.

At 6:20 p.m. Wednesday the jurors sent a question out asking what the Makowskis would do with the money. Judge Susan Gardner told the jurors they would have to rely on their memory of testimony by Cathy Makowski.

"Profit over safety, that's what this case is about," Obront said in his closing statement. "Their position is that customer safety is of the highest concern, and we would suggest otherwise."

The Makowskis' case was based on 750 calls for service from the McDonald's and the surrounding parking lot between 2001 and 2005. The incidents included juvenile disturbances, loitering and reported assaults. About 200 of the calls mentioned some form of alcohol use and most were made between midnight and 5 a.m. on Friday nights into Saturday mornings and Saturday nights into Sunday mornings.

The McDonald's drive-through is open 24 hours.

The defense has argued that Bob Brickman of Lutz and B&B were not liable because the types of things that were happening around the McDonald's didn't indicate a homicide was about to take place.

Brickman testified that he had told his employees to call police if trouble seemed imminent, which is exactly what they did the night of Makowski's killing.

Attorneys for the Makowskis said the employees didn't act fast enough.