A Dallas County jury on Wednesday evening returned a $1.1 billion verdict in favor of a 7-year-old boy and his parents after finding the child\u2019s stepfather responsible for assaulting him and causing catastrophic injuries that left the boy in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
The award included<\/a> approximately $291 million in compensatory damages and $810 million in punitive damages. The defendant, Charles Brooks Jr., an unemployed trust fund beneficiary, is the grandson of the late Virginia and Dr. Jesse Brooks and the great-grandson of one of the original investors in Humble Oil, the predecessor to Exxon.<\/p>\n Plaintiffs\u2019 lawyer Tony Buzbee, who represented the boy and his family, described the case after years of litigation and a contentious trial. Brooks, the child\u2019s stepfather, assaulted the then-2-year-old boy in 2021 while babysitting, according to the lawsuit. Brooks claimed the injuries were an accident.<\/p>\n The lawsuit said<\/a> the boy\u2019s mother, Madison Ball, had trusted Brooks, her then-husband, to watch her son while she worked. Brooks told her he needed to visit his grandfather in a Dallas hospital and took the child with him. Instead, he reportedly beat and abused the boy almost to death and lied about going to the hospital, the suit alleged.<\/p>\n Brooks later told Ball her son had fallen off the kitchen table and was non-responsive. When she demanded a FaceTime call, she saw the child barely breathing. Brooks claimed the boy had already been revived in an ice bath and would \u201csleep it off,\u201d the lawsuit states, CBS News Texas reported. He allegedly refused to call an ambulance and threatened her, saying he would \u201csnap her neck\u201d and \u201cf***ing kill her\u201d if she called the police or an ambulance. Ball called for help anyway.<\/p>\n At the hospital, doctors found the child had a severe brain bleed, a traumatic brain injury, adult bite marks on his legs, and multiple forms of organ and neurological damage. He spent months in the ICU in a medically induced coma. <\/p>\n The boy is now bedridden, relies on a breathing machine, and suffers permanent, severe brain damage that will require lifelong, 24-hour medical care, the lawsuit said. <\/p>\n Brooks gave conflicting accounts, first saying the child fell down the stairs and later claiming he had been in a car accident. He was arrested 11 days after the incident, went on the run<\/a>, and was captured. In 2023, Brooks pleaded guilty to injury to a child and was sentenced<\/a> to 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n The lawsuit sought compensatory damages to cover the boy\u2019s ongoing care and punitive damages for what it called Brooks\u2019 \u201cegregious, reckless, and sickening conduct,\u201d per CBS.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ball described her son as a healthy, energetic toddler before the assault.<\/p>\n