A Florida Keys jury Tuesday awarded a real estate developer more than $17 million in his civil case against a former Coast Guard base commander who was convicted of commissioning a 2012 hit on him.
The six-member jury agreed to the sum after Monroe County Chief Circuit Judge Mark Jones issued a default ruling against the ex-Coast Guardsman, Dennis Zecca, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence and did not show up for the civil trial in Key West. He did not send an attorney.
The decision comes a little more than a month after the real estate rep, Bruce Schmitt, reached a settlement valued at well over $1 million with the person he said put the plot together, rival businessman Ralph Lucignano.
