Tuesday Trent DiGiuro's family took their final step in the legal process with hopes a jury would send a message to this community and allow the DiGiuros to get a sense of justice they felt they were denied in two previous criminal trials.

Before the jury made their decision they heard James "Chip" Adams II tell them about a conversation he had with Shane Ragland in October 1991 about Trent DiGiuro.
Adams told the court, "He said he was going to kill him and he used the word kill. I will never forget the look on that guy's face when he said that…for whatever reason, but it hit me right between the eyes."

The jury also heard from DiGiuro's mother, Anne, who told them how much she missed her son and how hard a worker he was. Mike DiGiuro, Trent's father, talked about the loss his family had to share, "with the entire community for 14 years." He also said, " this isn't so much about what Trent was…it's more about what he could have been…what he could have been for us." It took the jury less than an hour to return a recommendation of $63.3 million. $60 million was in punitive damages; the remaining $3+ million was a combination of Trent DiGiuro's funeral expenses and the estimated amount DiGiuro would have earned in his lifetime.

Mike DiGiuro said the message the jury sent to the community by their decision was, "that money can't buy you everything and sooner or later you are going to have to pay for it." Although Ragland's family is wealthy, the DiGiuros are not confident they will receive a dime of this settlement. But if they do receive any money they plan on donating a large portion of it to the Trent DiGiuro Foundation which awards college scholarships to U.K. and High School students.

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