A lawsuit filed against the city of Marmet by the father of a man killed inside an apartment in the town will go forward, after a Kanawha County judge Wednesday denied the city's motion for summary judgment.
Anthony Hunter, who is administrator of his son's estate, claims in the complaint that the negligence of a Marmet police officer resulted in the death of his son, Kareem Hunter.
Hunter, 28, was beaten to death in the apartment of Kelsey Legg. He was reported missing Sept. 23, 2013, and his body was found two months later in a shallow grave in Beckley.
The lawsuit was later amended to add Legg as a defendant.
While Hunter was being attacked, an unknown person called 911, but when a Marmet officer arrived at the scene, the complaint states, the officer never entered the residence to determine whether anyone inside required assistance. Charleston attorney Michael Clifford is representing Anthony Hunter.
Last year, a Kanawha County jury acquitted Miguel Quinones of a murder charge in Hunter's death. Quinones was never released from jail after the acquittal, though, because federal prosecutors filed charges against him. Quinones is set to be sentenced Thursday morning on federal gun charges.
A Kanawha County judge sentenced Deveron Patterson to life in prison with the chance of parole after he admitted to the murder charge. Legg was originally charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to helping conceal a dead body and being an accessory after the fact to murder. She was sentenced to six to eight years in prison.
Before their son's body was found, Linda and Anthony Hunter, of Hampton, Virginia, told the Gazette-Mail that they believed the Marmet police officer who was at the scene could have done more investigating after a disturbance was reported. The officer previously told the newspaper he didn't see anything suspicious, however.
A neighbor called 911 the night Hunter was killed and told dispatchers she could hear "yelling and screaming" coming from Legg's apartment building, Kanawha sheriff's deputies wrote in an affidavit used to obtain a search warrant.