Jurors began hearing for the second time Wednesday about Cordale Handy, who was fatally shot by St. Paul police officers in 2017, to decide how much money to award his family in their federal lawsuit.

In the summer of 2023, another jury decided that St. Paul officer Nathaniel Younce used excessive force when he fatally shot the 29-year-old during a 2017 encounter in Dayton’s Bluff. They determined that the city should pay Handy’s family $1.5 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages.

The city of St. Paul filed an appeal about the amount of compensatory damages and U.S. District Judge David Doty, who presided over the original case, wrote in a February order that the $10 million civil award was “patently excessive.”

At the request of Handy’s mother, another civil trial was scheduled. It began Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis and, this time, jurors will only decide about compensatory damages since fault was already determined.

Kevin O’Connor, one of Kimberly Handy-Jones’ attorneys, told jurors Wednesday that he would be asking them to decide on a “substantial award” because of the family’s loss. He said outside of the courtroom that he didn’t know what the amount would be.

Stephanie Angolkar, an attorney representing the city and Younce, told jurors they would ask them to consider an amount under $1 million, not the “multiple millions” Handy-Jones’ attorneys will ask for.

Officers responded to 911 call

The previous jury concluded Younce violated Handy’s constitutional rights and wrongfully caused his death. Younce, who left the St. Paul police department last summer on a disability retirement, was not criminally charged.

Officers Younce and Mikko Norman responded about 2:20 a.m. on March 15, 2017, to a 911 call about a female screaming at an apartment building in the 700 block of East Sixth Street. Handy lived there with his girlfriend of 10 years, Markeeta Johnson-Blakney.

Younce and Norman didn’t know before they shot Handy that he’d fired 16 gunshots at a couch in his apartment. He was seeing people who weren’t there and thought they were hiding in the apartment, Johnson-Blakney testified during the first trial.

A toxicology report showed Handy had a stimulant drug in his system known by the street name of “bath salts,” which experts testified can cause hallucinations and a person to act aggressive and violently. O’Connor said Wednesday that Handy had used marijuana or “Molly” and it was apparently laced with another drug.

The officers encountered Handy outside the building. They reported they saw Handy fall down backward, lower his gun and raise it briefly toward Norman. The officers said Handy raised the gun toward Norman a second time and they shot him 10 times, seven of which struck him when he was on the ground. The incident occurred out of view of security cameras, and the police department hadn’t yet rolled out body-worn cameras.

Jurors during the first trial found Norman, who fired just after Younce, was not civilly liable. Norman left the police department in 2021 when his wife got a job outside of the Twin Cities.

Placing value

Cordale Handy (Courtesy of Kimberly Handy-Jones)

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim told jurors Wednesday they’ll be considering factors including Handy’s past contributions, his life expectancy and what he would have provided to his next of kin if he’d lived. He said they should not consider an amount that would punish Younce or the city, or the “pain and suffering” of Handy before his death.

O’Connor said in his opening statement that it wasn’t about what the city thought of the value “of this young Black man’s life,” but what his value was to his family and the losses they suffered.

Angolkar told jurors that the case is “not about whether Mr. Handy’s life mattered” or had value because “of course he mattered.” But she said the amount they decide to award Handy’s family can’t be based on sympathy or grief.

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