A lawsuit has been filed against a Little Rock convenience store by the family of an 18-year-old who was abducted from the store's parking lot by a parole absconder in 2013 and later killed.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Pulaski County Circuit Court, the family of Forrest Abrams alleges that Golden Food Mart, 1201 S. Woodrow St., "owed Forrest Abrams the duty of using ordinary care to keep its premises in a reasonably safe condition."
The lawsuit says that in the 24 months leading up to the killing of the Fayetteville teen, Little Rock police were called approximately 150 times to the convenience store for a variety of crimes including a homicide, six aggravated assaults, 13 assaults and four armed robberies.
The lawsuit contends that the store failed to employ security, provide training for employees in proper safety, maintain parking lot lighting or take other measures to prevent injury to Abrams.
The lawsuit also notes that at the time of Abrams' death, the store held a privilege license from the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
"Defendant Golden Food Mart's premises were defective; the defect in the premises was apparent to the Defendant Golden Food Mart, though not to Forrest Abrams; and the defect in the premises caused Forrest Abrams's death," the lawsuit says.
The family is seeking unspecified punitive damages. Charles Abrams and Amy Russell -- Forrest Abrams' father and mother -- and his sister, Alex Spinks, are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
In May, Darrell Dennis was convicted of capital murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison for Abrams' killing.
Abrams and a friend, Tyler Hodges, were in the Golden Food Mart parking lot on May 10, 2013, when they were approached by Dennis, who asked the men for money. Dennis was allowed into Abrams' vehicle, where he later demanded money at gunpoint and took the two men's wallets.
Dennis drove the men to a different location, ordered them into another car and threatened to kill them if they did not give him money. After failing to withdraw money from Hodges' bank account, Dennis drove the men to the home where Hodges said he could get money, according to court testimony from Hodges.
Once at the home, Hodges said he got out of the car and went in the house to call police. Shortly afterward, Abrams was found shot dead in the street.
Dennis' arrest in the killing resulted in a legislative review of the state Department of Community Correction, which oversees probation and parole, after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Dennis had been released from jail less than two days before the slaying and was an eight-time parole absconder.
During the resulting probe, the agency's longtime director resigned and the agency implemented new policies to hold parolees charged with crimes until they can face a parole review. The department also rescinded a 6-year-old policy that allowed absconders to end parole by avoiding arrest until time had run out on their sentences.
Metro on 07/31/2015