TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ An appeal court has reversed part of a $1.1 million civil verdict against a man who killed his mother and then dismembered and burned her corpse before scattering it on the family farm near Live Oak.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal on Monday overturned a $600,000 jury award that Douglas Elliott and Mary Ann Hooper won from their 56-year-old brother, William R. Elliott. He is serving a life sentence for murder.
The judges found they could not be compensated for infliction of emotional distress because they were neither present nor involved in what happened that day in November 2007.
The Tallahassee-based appeal court affirmed the remaining $500,000 for negligent handling of the corpse and loss of property value.
Pictured: Williams R. Elliott
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