A Westchester jury awarded $1.9 million on Monday to the family of a woman who was stabbed to death in 2005 by a convicted rapist who said he did it “because she was white.”
“Today we’re really happy and gratified,” Jonathan Russo, son of victim Connie Russo-Carriero, told The Post.
Russo-Carriero’s estate sued the city of White Plains in 2006 for $15 million claiming the police were aware of a pattern of robberies and assaults in the parking garage of the Galleria Mall where the 56-year-old legal secretary was slaughtered by homeless sex offender Phillip Grant.
Grant was sentenced to 25 year to life in 2006.
He brutalized Russo-Carriero with a stolen cutlery knife and admitted in a taped confession, “I’d never seen her. I didn’t care. As long as she had blond hair, blue eyes, she had to die. I had no remorse, because she was white.”
Russo said the civil verdict was a “measure of justice for my mom, she was a beautiful woman, completely innocent, and her life was taken from her so tragically.
“That unanimous jury decision solidified in our heads what we’ve known for all of those years — that the parking garage was a terribly dangerous place for people, especially women,” the 37-year-old financial planner added.
The family’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, said the jury of six deliberated for three days.
“It was just a remarkable verdict in that the jury unanimously found the city 100-percent liable,” Kelly said.
“The city had sufficient warning of criminal activity in the garage and of Philip grant’s propensity as a violent sex offender frequenting the garage,” he added.
The attorney said the jury agreed with his claim that it was the lack of security in the garage that led directly to Russo-Carriero’s death.
Russo said the family plans to donate a portion of the award to charity, including the Bereavement Center of Westchester, where he volunteers.
He said he visited his mother’s grave with his younger brother Michael after hearing the verdict.
“We felt very close to our mom today. At the end of the day it’s all about her and her memory and her legacy,” said the son, who will split the $1.9 million award with his brother.
The Russo family also successfully lobbied to pass Connie’s Law in 2007— a measure that permits the state to keep sex offenders in secure facilities after they’re released from prison.
“Hopefully in the future there will be less sexual predators…who are walking around our streets,” Russo said.
The city of White Plains plans to appeal.