Hide Article Text (OCR)
Family of slain Santa Rosa ' woman receive $5.5 million :• SANTA ROSA (AP) — The family of a slain 28-year-old woman was awarded $5.5 million after a jury found that an employment agency should have conducted a reference check on her murderer, a paroled killer.Jurors said Christina Appleton would not have been stabbed to death in August 1990 if Snelling Temporaries of Santa Rosa has checked paroled murderer Arvie Carroll’s work references. The references listed prisons where he had served time.“Arvie Carroll held the knife, but the act would never have happened if it had not been for the company’s neglect,” said Ray Leonard, one of the jurors. “They sent a person who was dangerous into some place he shouldn’t have been.”Carroll was assigned by the agency to do temporary office work at Iron Horse Vineyards where Appleton worked.Three jurors dissented from the verdict, but only because they wanted the judgment against Snell-ing to be higher, Leonard said.“I think the victims finally won one, Dan Appleton, Christina’s husband, said of the verdict.Marlena Holway, Christina’smother, declined to comment. She , was arrested last May trying to \smuggle a loaded handgun into the ,courtroom where Carroll was to be , sentenced.Carroll was convicted of second-degree murder for slaying Appleton near the winery following his dismissal because of bad work habits. He is serving out a sentence of life without possibility of parole.Attorneys for Appleton’s family said Snelling could easily have learned about Carroll’s criminal past if they had bothered to check with the state Department of Corrections. State officials testified that information about Carroll was readily available.During the trial, a Snelling official acknowledged it was unfair to . assign Carroll to work at the winery without checking to see if he had a criminal past.Another executive said the firm, in a cost-saving move, prohibited employees doing background checks from making long-distance telephone calls.The jury assigned 99.9 percent of the damages to Snelling Temporaries, and the remaining 0.1 percent to Carroll, who was not named in the suit.
Newspaper Details
, ,
Mon, Jan 01, 0001
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Bowling G.
OH, USA 10 Dec 2019
Other Publications Near ,
Mendocino Herald
Ukiah Dispatch Democrat
Mendocino Dispatch Democrat
Ukiah News
Ukiah City Press
