Verdict reached in Coronado Mansion wrongful death lawsuit





SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — A San Diego jury Wednesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to the family of a woman who authorities said committed suicide by hanging herself at a Coronado mansion in 2011, determining that the brother of the woman’s boyfriend was liable for her death.

Rebecca Zahau, 32, was found dead the day after her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai’s 6-year-old son, Max Schacknai, fell from a second-story landing at the mansion. The boy died five days later.

Zahau’s mother, Pari Zahau, and older sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner, rejected the suicide finding and filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2013 against Shacknai’s brother, Adam, claiming the defendant confronted and battered Zahau the day after his nephew fell.

The attorney for the plaintiffs, Keith Greer, alleged that Adam Shacknai delivered four blows to the head of Zahau, rendering her partially or fully unconscious. Greer also alleged that the defendant sexually assaulted Zahau, tied her hands and feet, put a noose around her neck and threw her body off a second-story balcony.

Greer said a phrase scrawled on a bedroom door with black paint that read “She saved him, can he save her,” was written by Adam Shacknai.

Adam Shacknai’s attorney, Dan Webb, countered that there was no evidence that his client — who has lived and worked in Memphis for 30 years — had anything to do with Zahau’s death. Adam Shacknai said Zahau encouraged him to come to San Diego to support his brother at his time of need.

After less than a day of deliberations, jurors found that he touched and battered Zahau before her death with the intent to harm her. The closing arguments are summarized in the segment below.

Jurors awarded Pari Zahau more than $5 million for loss of comfort and companionship and loss of money that the victim would have given to support her mother.

Greer said a second phase of the trial, in which the jury would consider punitive damages, might not be necessary.

The attorney called on the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to re-open its investigation into Zahau’s death.

The Sheriff’s Department responded to Wednesday’s verdict with the following statement:

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is aware of the recent verdict in the Rebecca Zahau wrongful death civil suit. We have cooperated with all parties on the presentation of evidence and testimony during the trial. Our thoughts are with the Zahau Family as they relive the tragic death of their daughter and sister, Rebecca. In regards to the criminal investigation, the Sheriff’s Department stands by the findings of the Medical Examiner’s Office and our investigators. These findings were supported by forensic evidence and medical examinations. We are always open to reviewing any evidence that could impact our conclusions. Additionally, we are also willing to meet with the Zahau Family to look at any new evidence that came out of the civil trial.

“We know that Rebecca did not commit suicide,” Greer said outside court. “We knew right away.”

Greer said the civil trial was a way to get the truth in front of the public.

“It’s not about money,” he said. “It’s never been about the money.”

Zahau-Loehner told reporters she was in “shock” upon hearing the verdict.

“For seven years, we had to fight to prove she didn’t commit suicide,” Zahau-Loehner said. “My sister was brutally murdered.”

Zahau-Loehner said she is holding out hope that someday Adam Shacknai, who’s now 54, will be criminally charged in the case.

The defendant testified that he had nothing to do with Zahau’s death. He said he was staying in the guest house at his brother’s mansion the night of July 12, 2011, after traveling to San Diego from his home in Memphis to be with his brother after Max’s accident.

Adam Shacknai said he emerged from his room early the next morning and saw Zahau’s nude body hanging from the balcony. He said he called 911, cut Zahau down and tried to give her CPR, then called his brother to tell him his girlfriend was dead.

Jonah Shacknai — a pharmaceuticals tycoon from Arizona — testified during the six-week trial that it was “inconceivable” that his younger brother had anything to do with Zahau’s death.

The jury began deliberations on Tuesday, after the second day of closing arguments.

In his final statements to the jury, defense attorney Dan Webb Tuesday told the panel of 7 men and 5 women that there was not a shred of evidence to link defendant Adam Shacknai to the death of Rebecca Zahau.

Adam Shacknai, the younger brother of Zahua’s boyfriend was the person who called 911 and the other person on the Coronado mansion grounds on the night before she was discovered hanged from a balcony railing.

In closing arguments one day earlier, attorney Keith Greer representing the Zahau family made use of a life-sized mannequin, while playing Shacknai’s phone call to 911, trying to show the jury that Shacknai feigned shock, and did not go over to check whether Zahau was alive, until after he contacted 911.

Defense attorney Dan Webb did not show the jury any dramatic displays during his closing remarks but offered a point-by-point rebuttal to the plaintiffs’ arguments. Webb said that the plaintiffs’ circumstantial evidence amounted to no evidence at all. In discussing the mysterious message painted on a mansion door, Webb said his expert testified that it would be impossible for anyone to make a valid comparison between a stroke made with a paintbrush and a pen stroke. A knot expert who testified for the defense challenged the plaintiffs’ claim that the knots on Rebecca’s bindings were nautical in nature.

Shacknai works as a tugboat pilot. Webb said the expert who testified for the defense noted that the knots that were used were so simple and elementary that they could even be tied by a gorilla or a bird.

The defense attorney also attacked the plaintiffs’ theory that Rebecca was strangled by Adam Shacknai after a sexual assault, and that her killing was staged to look like a suicide. Webb insisted there was no proof of strangulation and no DNA or physical evidence to support the claim that Zahau was sexually violated with the handle of a knife.

There are significant differences between a criminal and a civil trial.

Unlike a criminal case, the jury does not have to determine guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.” To find someone guilty in a civil trial, the jury must only find “a preponderance of evidence” meaning that it is more likely than not that the defendant committed the crime.

KUSI interviewed Zahau’s family attorney Keith Greer following the verdict. Information about it can be found here.