November 2, 2002 - Barretts awarded $30.9M in McCrady case

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While he doesn't expect to see a penny of it, the father of Belpre murder victim Jenifer Barrett McCrady sees the $30.9 million judgment against her husband - and convicted killer - as a moral victory for the family she left behind. Thomas and Janet Barrett of Belpre filed a wrongful death suit in 1998 in their daughter's name against her husband, Jackie D. McCrady II, the former Ohio State Highway patrolman convicted of killing her.

Following a hearing and testimony Thursday in Washington County Common Pleas Court, Judge Susan Boyer ruled in favor of the Barretts and awarded the family $25 million in punitive damages and $5.9 million in compensatory damages. McCrady was convicted in 1997 of shooting Jenifer McCrady in their Belpre home and hiding the body in a shallow grave off U.S. 50 in Little Hocking. He is serving a sentence of 18 years to life at the Ross Correctional Institute in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Thursday's ruling is primarily a moral victory for the family after four years of work, Barrett said Friday. With McCrady in prison, they don't expect to see any of the money but if they ever do, it will be for Jenifer McCrady's two children, he said. ''We hope it will help a little bit with closure,'' Barrett said of Thursday's conclusion to the civil suit.

With the conclusion of the wrongful death suit after four years, Barrett said, the couple doesn't plan to focus their attention on the case until 2014, when McCrady is due for parole. They plan to oppose any kind of early release for him, he said.