Jury Awards $60 Mil. In Serrano Slaying

BARTOW | A Polk County jury awarded a New York couple a $60 million verdict Tuesday against the man convicted of murdering their son in 1997.

The verdict is thought to be among the largest in Polk County history for a wrongful death case.

Lakeland lawyer R. Kent Lilly, who's been practicing civil law in Polk County for 31 years, said he's not aware of a higher verdict.

But the chances are slim that Mary Ann and George Patisso Sr. will see any of that money. The defendant, condemned murderer Nelson Ivan Serrano, has no assets, according to his lawyer, Bob Norgard of Bartow, the private lawyer who also defended Serrano at his murder trial.

"He has nothing, so we went through the motions of a trial and threw a big number out there that is uncollectible," he said.

But Patisso said the lawsuit was more about having a second jury state that Serrano was responsible for the death of his son, 27-year-old George Patisso Jr.

"This is the final chapter in a long book," he said. "This is to say that we have done everything we said we were going to do for our son."

The jury of three men and three women deliberated about an hour before reaching its verdict against Serrano, who chose not to attend the two-day trial. He remains on death row at Florida State Prison in Starke.

He was convicted in October 2006 of the worst mass murder in Polk County history - the slayings of four people at Erie Manufacturing in Bartow, where he'd been ousted as a partner six months before the December 1997 massacre.

Among the victims was George Patisso Jr., 27, whose father-in-law was a partner in the business.

After Serrano was indicted in May 2001 and arrested in September 2002, George Patisso Jr.'s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him. The case was suspended until after the criminal trial, which ended in June 2007 when Circuit Judge Susan Roberts sentenced Serrano to death for each of the four murders.

In the Patissos' lawsuit, Circuit Judge Jay Yancey ruled that Serrano was liable for George Patisso Jr.'s death by virtue of his criminal conviction. And on Tuesday, he rejected a defense motion that the lawsuit wasn't filed within the time allowed by state law.

Lawyers in the case also agreed that Serrano owed the Patissos $111,200 for economic losses, including lost wages and their son's funeral expenses.

That left the jury to decide the value of the couple's pain and suffering for the loss of their son.

Both parents gave tearful testimony Tuesday, expressing the depth of their grief.

"My boy just walked in a room and my heart sang," said Mary Ann Patisso. She choked on tears as she recounted the night her son was shot five times in the head.

"We got the phone call, and we were trying not to believe it," she said. "We just couldn't believe what we heard."

"He had so much to offer," she told the jury, "and I couldn't protect him. Everything is gone and it never gets any better. It never gets any easier. How could any mother ever get over that?"

His father, George Patisso Sr., told the jury he feels cheated.

"It's hard to see his friends, that I see every week, and I see their little children and I wish I could have some of his to be my grandchildren," he said. "The name Patisso won't go on any more. It's really nothing, but to me, it would be nice."

Their daughter, Ann Marie Ferraro, testified about the heartache she has watched her parents endure.

"My dad is so hurt and so angry," she said. "To see them suffer the way I do, it's so painful."

Norgard, representing Serrano, didn't cross-examine the only three witnesses in the trial, nor did he offer any testimony or evidence on Serrano's behalf.

"The jury knew Serrano was liable for the murders," he said. "We're dealing with a human life, and people can say you can't put a price on that."

Bartow lawyer Jonathan Stidham, representing the Patissos, asked the jury for a verdict between $10 million to $100 million. After the verdict, he and the Patissos said they were pleased with the jury's decision.

"At one time, Serrano was a wealthy man," Stidham said, "but we have assured today that he will never be again."

He said if authorities ever identify any hidden assets in Serrano's name, those will go toward paying this judgment.

While court observers suggested the Serrano verdict is the largest jury award in a wrongful death case, Polk juries have ordered substantial awards in other civil trials. In July 2007 a Lakeland family received a verdict totaling nearly $45 million in a personal injury case. The jury ruled a truck driver was at fault in the car crash death of Morgan Bryant and serious injury of her mother, Carla. Morgan's death resulted in a $5.7 million award, while her mother was awarded $39.2 million.

[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. ]