The family of a man shot to death by a Kern County sheriff’s deputy was awarded $30.5 million by a federal jury Wednesday in one of California’s largest police shooting payouts.
Unarmed Mickel Lewis Sr. died after being shot five times by Deputy Jason Ayala on Oct. 2, 2020. His family said that, after he was pulled over in an “unwarranted” stop, he was shot in the back and died in the street.
Lewis’ family filed a civil complaint against Ayala, Kern County and several unnamed defendants in the Eastern District of California. They claimed excessive force and unreasonable force, battery, negligence and a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
The jury agreed with the claims, awarding $5 million for loss of life, $1 million for Lewis’ pre-death pain and suffering and $24.5 million in wrongful death damages to Lewis’ children.
Civil rights attorney Toni Jaramilla, who represented Lewis Sr.’s family, said she believed it was the second-highest jury verdict award in a police shooting case in the state.
“It is the largest verdict in Fresno for a police shooting case,” she said in a statement.
The 39-year-old Lewis Sr. was pulled over in an “unwarranted vehicle stop,” according to the complaint, and then shot in the back.
Ayala was alleged to have provided no emergency medical care and attention before Lewis died on the street, according to the complaint.
An after-hours call to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office for comment was not returned.
The complaint also alleges intimidation and harassment by multiple deputies, who congregated near a memorial for Lewis Sr. and surveilled his family as they gathered.
Sheriff’s officials have said that Ayala knew that Lewis, who had multiple previous convictions, was on probation and believed he was possibly in possession of a gun when he stopped him, according to reporting by KGET 17 in Bakersfield.
Defendants argued at trial, according to Jaramilla, that Lewis reached under the seat of his vehicle for a gun and threatened to kill Ayala. They said he concealed his right hand behind his back, and was facing Ayala during all of the shots.
Jaramilla said Ayala’s testimony was countered by witnesses, physical and forensic evidence and the trajectory of the gunshots.
A November 2020 review by the Sheriff’s Office of Ayala’s use of force in the incident was found to be “within departmental policy.”
The trial lasted five days and the jury deliberated for about 4½ hours, according to Jaramilla.
“We are grateful this Fresno jury showed reverence for the life of Mickel Lewis Sr., a 39-year-old unarmed African American father who was shot five times, twice in the back, by a deputy sheriff who refused to account for his use of deadly force, and a Kern Sheriff Department that defended the indefensible,” co-trial counsel J. Bernard Alexander said after the verdict.