Charter Communications ordered to pay family $1.1 billion over murdered relative

A Texas family has been awarded $1.14 billion in damages against Charter Communications in a lawsuit over the fatal stabbing of their elderly mother and grandmother nearly three years ago. 

Dallas County Judge Juan Renteria ordered Charter to pay the family of Betty Jo McClain Thomas in a final judgment released Monday. The settlement comes after former Spectrum cable technician Roy Holden Jr. admitted to murdering the 83-year-old Thomas in her home in December 2019. 

A Texas jury also found that Charter "knowingly and intentionally committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm" the plaintiffs by faking Thomas' signature on a forced arbitration agreement after she had already died.