A former Oxford police officer has been ordered to pay the children of a woman he murdered millions of dollars. A federal judge issued a default ruling against the ex-cop after he failed to respond to the civil lawsuit from his prison cell.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson ordered Matthew Kinne to pay the descendants of Dominique Lashelle Clayton, a 32-year-old Black woman he shot in the back of her head while she was sleeping, $2.2 million.
The woman’s family hired Carlos Moore, the president of the National Bar Association, to represent them in a civil lawsuit.
Originally, Clayton’s sister, Shyjuan Clayton, said the four underage children should receive $10 million in compensation and additional therapy costs.
Shyjuan and the family’s attorneys estimated there are three places where the children will be at a deficit because their mother is not alive in their lives: therapy, child/ family support, and pain and suffering.
The aunt says the children routinely have nightmares and are traumatized since the violent killing. Clayton’s youngest son, who was 8 years old at the time of the murder, discovered his mother’s body.
The older brother stepped in to console his baby brother but later directed his attention to his two sisters — blocking them from seeing the victim.
The daughters have therapy sessions twice a week, but the family believes all three of the younger children should go and that Kinne should pay for it. The ask was for them to see a therapist twice a week for the next 10 years. The family requested the court allow the oldest son to go once a week for the next five years.
Currently, the family is paying $90 per session for the two girls, and based on that price, wants an award of $318,900 for therapy costs, the Daily Journal reports.
“This is something they will never forget,” Shyjuan said. “Although my sister’s daughters did not see their murdered mother, the pain, fear, shock and disbelief was all the same.”
FOX 13 reports, in May of 2019, the then OPD officer broke into Clayton’s house on Suncrest Drive, under the guise of doing a wellness check. He wore his uniform and was on duty when he fatally shot Clayton in her sleep. The two were rumored to have been in a relationship and Kinne was married, and Clayton wanted him to commit fully to her.
Kinne, a Mississippi native, was fired after pleading guilty to capital murder, and now he is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The deceased’s family filed a wrongful lawsuit, two years after her death, in August 2021. Moore said this might be Mississippi’s largest judgment ever in an excessive force case.
Clayton reportedly earned an annual income of about $30,000 as a Chipotle employee, spending about two-thirds of every check on the support of her family. Based on that salary and multiplying it over a 10-year-period, the family believes the children should receive an award of $200,000 in economic support for lost income.
In addition to the therapy and loss of income in support of the children, the family is asking for pain and suffering to be considered.
“They have suffered, and will always suffer mentally with the brutal murder of their mother,” Shyjuan said. “We are asking the court to have mercy for Dominique Clayton’s children. We know you can’t take away their pain, but we are asking that each child be awarded $2,500,000 each for past, present, and future pain and suffering.”
The three categories together add up to a total ask of $10,518,900.
Davidson’s ruling was for less than what the family wanted but still significant.
“The Court finds that the Defendant Kinne is liable for compensatory damages in the amount of $1,200,000. In arriving at this figure, the Court awards $300,000 to each of the surviving children of the Decedent, for a total of $1,200,000,” the documents said.
Davidson awarded punitive damages in the amount of $1 million to the Clayton children, whose ages range between 11 to 17, totaling an award of $2.2 million.
The decision in Kinne’s case will not affect claims against the city of Oxford and other defendants in the case.
In addition to the city, the civil lawsuit names Police Chief Jeff McCutchen as a defendant. In September 2021, Oxford and McCutchen both filed a motion to be dismissed as defendants from the lawsuit. Davidson has not ruled on the dismissal motion.
Kinne is no longer employed by the city and is currently incarcerated, so many wonder “where will the $2 million come from?”
Moore says the city of Oxford. The courts could assign the burden to the city if the family can prove Kinne was on duty as an Oxford police officer and in uniform when he committed the crime.
“The million-dollar question is whether his actions were within the scope of his employment,” the lawyer said.
