A Nashville mother is receiving a six-figure settlement in her daughter’s wrongful death lawsuit.
In 2021, police say 24-year-old Michaela Carter was shot and killed by her estranged husband James Leggett even though she had an order of protection against him.
Her family argued police did not follow policy and could’ve saved her daughter’s life by arresting Leggett when she called for help. Just moments before meeting with Carter and her mother, Kimberly Jones-Mbuyi, officers saw Leggett, but didn’t arrest him after getting notice of him failing to abide by the protection order. Last night, Metro Council approved a resolution to pay $250,000 to Carter’s mother.
Shortly after approving the settlement, the family’s attorney released a statement saying, “it should not have taken litigation for Metro to adopt policy changes to address the clear MNPD failures that got Mrs. Jones-Mbuyi’s daughter killed, though, and those policy changes should never have been used by Metro Legal as leverage in settlement negotiations. Even so, we are pleased that meaningful policy changes that will help protect future domestic violence victims are now in place, and we are proud to have secured close to the maximum permitted recovery for Mrs. Jones-Mbuyi to go along with them.”