SAN DIEGO_One of San Diego's most compelling and controversial death investigations took another turn Wednesday when a San Diego Superior Court jury determined that Rebecca Zahau didn't commit suicide at a Coronado mansion in 2011, and that her boyfriend's brother is legally responsible for her death.
The jury found that Adam Shacknai must pay Zahau's family $5 million for the loss of Zahau's love and companionship, plus $167,000 for the loss of financial support she would have provided her mother and siblings.
The verdict rebukes the finding by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department that Zahau _ the then-girlfriend of millionaire pharmaceutical executive Jonah Schacknai _ committed suicide, and ratified her family's long contention that the 32-year-old surgical technician imbued with a strong Christian faith would never take her own life.
Immediately afterward, the family lawyer, C. Keith Greer, and Zahau's sister, Mary Zahau-Loehners, called on Sheriff Bill Gore to reopen the case and investigate further.
"This has always been about getting the sheriff to reopen this," Greer said outside the courtroom minutes after the verdict. "Adam Shacknai doesn't have money. This isn't about money. It's about getting the Sheriff's Department to open this up, do their job. This clearly isn't a suicide."
After the verdict, the jury was dismissed until Thursday morning, when there may be another hearing regarding punitive damages awards. They remained under an admonition not to speak about the case.
A representative of the Shacknai family said their lawyer, Dan Webb, and family members would not comment Wednesday because the case is ongoing.
Jurors voted 9-3 to find that Adam Shacknai, 54, battered Zahau before her death with the intent to harm her, and also found him liable for her wrongful death. In civil lawsuits, nine votes are sufficient to prevail, unlike criminal cases where the verdict has to be unanimous.
Shacknai hung his head as the verdicts were being read.
An emotional Zahau-Loehners said outside court she was in shock and grateful for the jury. She also forcefully urged Gore to take a second look at her sister's death.
"Hopefully people will know she didn't commit suicide and she was murdered," she said. "And she doesn't deserve to be treated the way the Sheriff's Department treated her."
Asked what she would say to Gore, Zahau-Loehners said, "I would like him to be honest, to be truthful and to reopen the case.
"And investigate it as a murder."
A spokeswoman for the department brushed off both the family's plea, and the implications of the verdict.
"We completed a comprehensive and professional investigation and stand behind it. We have no further comment about this civil lawsuit," Lt. Karen Stubkjaer said in an email statement.
Zahau's mother and sister have long disputed the county's finding in 2011 that Zahau's death at the historic Spreckels mansion was a suicide. They also pointed to the unusual circumstances of her death. Zahau's nude body was found hanging from a balcony attached to a second-floor guest bedroom, her hands and feet were bound, and a cryptic message was scrawled on the bedroom door.
The message read: "She saved him can you save her."
County authorities said there was no evidence _ no fingerprints or DNA belonging to anyone other than Zahau _ indicating she was killed.
Greer argued that Shacknai battered his brother's girlfriend, hit her on the head, sexually assaulted and manually strangled her, then staged the hanging to look like she took her own life.
"Why did Adam Shacknai brutally murder Rebecca Zahau?" Greer asked rhetorically Monday. "It's one of the oldest reasons in the world _ sex."
He said Shacknai used the handle of a steak knife to sexually assault Zahau. Traces of her blood were on the handle. Greer called it "a confrontation that went awry."
The attorney said Shacknai used black paint to scrawl the message on the bedroom door, a reference to an incident involving his brother Jonah Shacknai's 6-year-old son, Max, who suffered a tragic fall at the mansion two days before Zahau's body was found.
Zahau was the only adult at the home when Max tumbled from a second-floor staircase landing. She tried CPR on the boy, while her younger sister called 911. Max died several days later.
Jonah Shacknai was at his son's bedside when he got a call informing him that his girlfriend Zahau was dead.
The call came from his younger brother, who was staying in a guest house at the mansion.
Adam Shacknai has disputed having anything to do with her death, aside from finding Zahau hanging from the balcony on July 13, 2011, using a kitchen knife to cut the body down and then calling 911.
Webb argued that there was no evidence tying Shacknai to Zahau's death.
"Plaintiffs argue that he's in the vicinity, therefore he must be guilty. That's not evidence," Webb told jurors.
On Tuesday, Webb told jurors that out of 29 witnesses who testified, either in court or by deposition, "not a single one of them gave you testimony that Adam Shacknai was in the house that night."
He said a two-month law enforcement investigation turned up no fingerprint or DNA evidence showing Shacknai had touched evidence including knives, the ropes that bound Zahau or doors in the guest room.
Greer argued that the lack of evidence is proof that it was wiped away by Shacknai. He also argued that the knots that bound Zahau were nautical, which would seem to implicate Shacknai.
An expert called by the defendant's lawyer said the knots were simple ones that many people know.
The civil trial lasted about six weeks. The jury deliberated less than a day before announcing it had reached verdicts.
