The parents of an Arizona teenager who died after being attacked while leaving a Halloween party last year have filed a lawsuit naming the seven teens and young adults suspected of beating him as well as the residents of the home where the party took place.
Preston Lord, 16, died at a hospital following the Oct. 28 party at the home of Roberto and Emily Correa in Queen Creek, Arizona, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday and obtained by FOX affiliate KSAZ-TV. His death, ultimately ruled a homicide, sparked a lengthy police investigation that resulted in murder charges for the seven suspects, who ranged in age from 17 to 20.
The civil lawsuit accuses them and the Correas of negligence, alleging the two adults were responsible for the almost 200 people, many of them minors, who attended the party.
Preston Lord, 16, shown in a photo posted to a GoFundMe page, was found severely beaten Oct. 28, 2023, following a Halloween party. He died at a hospital Oct. 30.
The lawsuit said the house party was advertised on social media as a “Halloween Rager,” with an open invite where alcohol was served. The Correas were inside the home at the time and allegedly not supervising the people in their backyard.
Roberto Correa only ended the party after hearing about an altercation, the lawsuit stated.
Queen Creek police previously said in a news release that they received a call to their nonemergency line about 9 p.m. Oct. 28 and later found a number of young people leaving the party. Officers were then diverted to a higher-priority call.
Police returned to the party less than an hour later to a call of an assault and found Lord in the road with life-threatening injuries, according to the news release. He was taken to the hospital and died two days later.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told multiple local outlets that tensions began when Lord and a friend tried to get back a gold chain that had been taken from a friend, and the indictment accused several of the suspects of taking property from the victims.
The suspects, whose ages are listed when the attack occurred, Talan Renner, 17, Talyn Vigil, 17, William Owen Hines, 17, Dominic Turner, 20, Taylor Sherman, 18, Treston Billey, 18, and Jacob Meisner, 16, were each charged as adults with murder and kidnapping, according to court records reviewed by HuffPost. Billey and Meisner were additionally charged with aggravated robbery, and all of them have pleaded not guilty.
According to the lawsuit, they were intoxicated at the time and pursued Lord and his friends and restrained him. They then allegedly struck Lord in the head and other parts of his body until he became unconscious.
Renner’s parents were also named in the lawsuit, which said they were negligent and should have known of “their son’s propensity to engage in violence and inflict physical harm upon others.”
The lawsuit cited multiple instances of Renner’s “violence,” including an alleged assault between 2022 and 2023 on another resident at a treatment center in Hurricane, Utah.
Bryn DeFusco, an attorney representing the Lord family, told HuffPost in an email that they are seeking “justice and accountability for all those who contributed to Preston’s death.”
“This lawsuit brings them one step closer to achieving that goal. They are grateful for the community support and are determined to see this through to the end,” DeFusco said.
Previous reports by AZFamily highlighted the police attention on the Renners. Police reports cited by the outlet alleged that his father took Talan Renner to stay at a family cabin about three hours away from their home following the assault.
The father’s ex-girlfriend told police that their attorney had advised him to let his son’s hands heal before bringing him back into town, according to the outlet. She reportedly described Renner as an “angry kid” who “holds in a lot of aggression,” and “when he snaps, he snaps.”
Attorneys were not listed under the suspects’ and parent’s civil record. Talan Renner’s criminal attorney did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
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