COLUMBUS — A family in Columbus has been awarded $787 million in a wrongful death verdict, according to our media partners WBNS-10 in Columbus.
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A six-person jury awarded damages to the family of 2-year-old Ja’Syiah Boone, more than five years after his death.
According to the family’s attorney Dan Mordarski, Boone died on May 22, 2018, while playing with his siblings in their bedroom.
In the bedroom was a bunk bed the mother purchased online from Wayfair, Mordarski said.
Boone ran up the bed but got trapped between the top step and rail, causing him to have positional asphyxiation and die shortly after, the station said.
“For this mother to see that...for the two little brothers in the room to see their brother die in front of them...pretty horrible,” Mordarski said.
When the family approached Mordarski they started their own investigation, the station said.
The family and attorney found that Moash Enterprise Company Limited out of Vietnam manufactured the bunk beds and they are sold from e-commerce platforms like Wayfair.
“It violated three major safety standards. There’s no reason why that gap should’ve been in that ladder…No reason,” Mordarski said.
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According to the station, the family and attorney worked to get the beds recalled and removed from the website. They were recalled on Dec. 22, 2022, but shortly after, more were found online.
“That bed was recalled because it killed a little boy, and they just continued to sell it. That to me is just reprehensible,” Mordarski said.
Mordarski asked the judge for a jury trial to find Moash in default and for the jury to determine damages, according to the station.
The jury awarded the family with one of the largest, if not the largest wrongful death verdict in the state, the station said.
“The mom told the jury today that she doesn’t want his death to be in vain, and she told the jury she never ever wants another mom to have to go through what she had to go through,” Mordarski said.
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