A settlement on the eve of a jury trial was reached this week in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a Chicago bartender who was punched unconscious outside a downtown 7-Eleven, robbed by passersby, then run over by a taxi.
Shocking security camera footage captured the February 2016 incident that caused the death of Marques Gaines.
The lawsuit alleged store owners, operators and employees were culpable because they did not properly train personnel and — despite knowing that crime is high in that particular area — did not provide adequate security.
On Tuesday, a day before juror selection was to begin, a settlement was reached, according to Evan Smola, who served as a co-counsel for the Gaines family. He refused to share the amount of the financial settlement.
“This helps bring peace, but there’s not enough money in the world to pay for somebody’s life,” Gaines’ first cousin, Drexina Nelson, said Thursday. “And if we could trade anything to get Marques back, we’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Gaines, 32, was a bartender at a downtown motel. The day he died, he had just finished a shift and had a drink with a few colleagues at Mother Hubbard’s, according to the suit.
After that, Gaines went into the 7-Eleven at State and Hubbard shortly after 4 a.m. to buy a bag of chips. Outside, he found himself in the middle of a confrontation between a 7-Eleven security guard and a man who’d just been kicked out, according to the suit and Gaines family attorney Christopher Hurley.
The man who’d been booted from the store assaulted Gaines, leaving him unconscious in the street.
Neither the security guard nor a store clerk tried to help Gaines “in any manner whatsoever and, instead, simply stood on the sidewalk as he lay unconscious and unprotected in the street,” the suit stated.
Security camera footage shows two people running up to his limp body on the street.
At first it appears the two were Good Samaritans, rendering first aid; they were actually thieves who took his wallet and cell phone, then fled.
Moments later, Gaines was run over by a cab.
An autopsy found he died of multiple blunt force injuries, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled a homicide.
Marcus Dante Moore was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for aggravated battery; he was paroled after about five months in prison, and will complete his parole Dec. 30, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“Seeing what happened to Marques, it makes me want to rush to help when I see people in trouble,” Nelson said. “It opened my eyes to caring more about other people.”
