This story by John Lippman was first published in the Valley News on Oct. 6.
WOODSTOCK — The estate of a Cornish Flat man who was fatally shot by a friend’s son when he showed up at their home in Woodstock is suing the mother for financial damages.
The civil suit alleges that the mother knew her 45-year-old son had a gun and was at risk of violent behavior and endangered her friend’s life by not warning him about it.
The estate of Dieter Seier is suing June Wilson, whose son, Jay Wilson, shot and killed Seier outside the Wilsons’ home on Slayton Terrace in Woodstock on June 14, 2022. June Wilson had asked Seier to help move her son out of the house, because she was putting it up for sale.
After Jay Wilson shot and killed Seier, 67, he retreated back into the house, where he was later found dead by police with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The civil lawsuit, which was filed in Windsor County Superior Court in February, came to light when it was first reported by the Vermont Standard last week.
June Wilson “had a duty to disclose the past dangerous and unsafe behaviors of which she knew or should have known about her son. She also had a duty to disclose the presence of firearms,” the lawsuit alleges, instead telling Seier that “Jay was safe and that he could stay at the home without risk or harm.”
The Seier estate is seeking a jury trial to award compensatory and punitive damages, “in addition to all other relief that the court deems just and equitable.”
Pietro Lynn, a Burlington attorney representing the estate and Shap Smith, a Burlington attorney representing Wilson, both declined to comment.
While residing at his mother’s Slayton Hill house, Jay Wilson “frequently made threats of violence if displeased” and had exhibited behavior that frightened neighbors and others in town, the lawsuit said, which alleges new details in the days and hours leading up to the shooting.
According to the lawsuit, June Wilson traveled from her home in Florida on June 1, 2022, with the intent to sell her Woodstock home and change her will. During a meeting at the attorney’s office, Jay Wilson became “angry and threatening” and was ordered to leave the office by the attorney.
Four days later, on June 5, June Wilson contacted Seier, “a friend of longstanding,” and requested his assistance to clean out the house, but didn’t tell him about the incident with her son at the attorney’s office. Jay Wilson also “demanded” his mother split half the proceeds of the house sale with him, the lawsuit said.
In an effort to calm her son, she promised him $50,000 and on June 13 they both went to People’s United Bank to withdraw the money. Jay Wilson allegedly again acted in such a “threatening and frightening” manner over “not getting enough money from his mother” and scared bank employees, who called police. He left the bank before police arrived and the employees locked the doors because “bank employees were afraid he might come back and perpetuate violence.”
But on the next day, when Seier accompanied June Wilson at her request to the Slayton Terrace house, she allegedly had never informed Seier that her son had been “acting irrationally” in the preceding days, nor mentioned anything about her son possessing a firearm.
“June failed to disclose important information which would have caused Dieter to reconsider his decision to accompany June. If there had been full disclosure, Dieter would not have come to the home,” the lawsuit alleges.
In June Wilson’s answer to the complaint, she largely denied or “denied as stated” — a legal term rebutting an allegation based on how it is characterized or phrased — and pointedly said she “did not tell Dieter that Jay had firearms because she did not know that Jay had firearms.”
In July, June Wilson’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that — apart from allegations or denials — under Vermont law she “had no duty to protect Dieter from the conduct of her adult son,” citing state court cases in support of the argument.
In August, the estate’s attorney, in seeking to deny June Wilson’s motion to dismiss, countered with an argument citing state court cases — including some of the same cases the plaintiffs used in support of their claim — in support of June Wilson’s liability.
The court has not yet ruled on the motions and a hearing date hasn’t been set.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Estate of Woodstock shooting victim sues his slayer’s mother.