said Thursday.<\/a><\/p>\nBrooks, an unemployed trust-fund baby and the great-grandson of Humble Oil founding investor Percy Turner, is already serving 40 years in a Texas prison for the heinous assault on his stepson, whom he was asked to babysit while his wife was working.<\/p>\n
Charles Edwin Brooks Jr. was ordered to pay $1.1 billion for violently beating his 2-year-old stepson to near death in April 2021.<\/p>\n
Brooks\u2019 ex-wife Madison Ball in the hospital with her son Stephen Sampson after the attack. Facebook \/ Madison Ball<\/p>\n
The gargantuan payout includes $291 million in compensatory damages and $810 million in punitive damages, according to court records.<\/p>\n
The boy, now 7, was awarded $800 million \u2014 in addition to all of the compensatory damages \u2014 and his parents will receive $5 million each.<\/p>\n
It is the largest verdict in US history for the assault of a child.<\/p>\n
In the civil lawsuit filed by Ball on behalf of her son, Brooks was\u00a0entrusted to watch the then 2-year-old\u00a0on April 22, 2021 when the horrifying attack took place.<\/p>\n
Sampson will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life. Facebook \/ Madison Ball<\/p>\n
Sampson was left unable to walk after the assault and now uses a wheelchair. Facebook \/ Prayers for Blake<\/p>\n
Brooks claimed he was going to visit his grandfather in a Dallas hospital and brought the boy with him.<\/p>\n
However, the lawsuit alleged no such visit took place, and that Brooks instead viciously beat the young victim within an inch of his life.<\/p>\n
He called Ball hours later, claiming the boy was \u201cnon-responsive\u201d after falling off a kitchen table, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
Brooks is currently booked in the San Saba County Jail, serving a 40-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on a child causing serious bodily harm. Facebook<\/p>\n
In a frightening back-and-forth ordeal, Ball demanded to see her child over a FaceTime call, during which, to her horror, she witnessed her toddler \u201cbarely breathing\u201d while her then-husband ignored her pleas to call 911, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
Brooks downplayed the severity of the child\u2019s injuries, insisting he would \u201csleep it off\u201d and had already been thrown into an ice bath to be revived.<\/p>\n
He also threatened his wife that he would \u201csnap her neck\u201d and \u201cf\u2013king kill her\u201d if she called 911.<\/p>\n
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Ball ignored the threats and called 911 to get him the medical attention he desperately needed.<\/p>\n
First responders arrived and discovered that the toddler was severely beaten, unresponsive and had adult bite marks on his legs.<\/p>\n
The child sustained \u201ca traumatic brain injury, chronic respiratory failure, seizure disorder, urethral trauma, and traumatic hemorrhage of bilateral retina,\u201d according to the records.<\/p>\n
Sampson was awarded $800 million in addition to $291 million in compensatory damages. Instagram \/ Tony Buzzbee<\/p>\n
Ball\u2019s son will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life, has a tracheostomy tube, is bedridden, cannot walk and cannot survive more than a couple of hours without a breathing machine due to the severity of his injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The child\u2019s) life is a fraction of what it once was, and he will never grow into the strong, healthy, happy boy he should of because of Brooks\u2019 terrible, violent, horrific behavior,\u201d the original court petition read.<\/p>\n
A years-long court battle ensued before a jury reached its record-breaking verdict on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The 7-year-old boy\u2019s parents will also receive $5 million each. Facebook \/ Madison Ball<\/p>\n
\u201cWe claim to value children in our society. This Texas jury stepped up and showed that. Don\u2019t mess with Texas children,\u201d lawyer Tony Buzbee said. \u201cI hope that through this verdict this precious child gets all the care he will need and hopefully make his life as good as it can be made under the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawyers for Ball and the boy argued Brooks was a career criminal with prior arrests for theft, aggravated robbery, gun charges and drug possession.<\/p>\n
After nearly killing the child, Brooks was released on bond before he cut off his ankle monitor and attempted to flee. He was later found at a sports bar in South Texas.<\/p>\n
He is currently booked in the San Saba County Jail, serving a 40-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on a child causing serious bodily harm.<\/p>\n
Brooks is up for parole in 2042, with his projected release date on Jan. 30, 2062, when he will be 70 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The heir to a Texas oil fortune has been ordered to pay $1.1 billion in a landmark ruling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8301,2850,9,11,10,21760,1777,58],"class_list":["post-179427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-child-abuse","tag-lawsuits","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-oil","tag-texas","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}