The Lee Blalack Closing That Cleared FedEx in Florida, Wrongful Death Crash Trial

Watch the pivotal moments of Lee Blalack's closing at trial over the death of Sari Adams Marcus. A Florida 4th Circuit Court jury, in Duval County, deliberated less than 90 minutes before concluding that FedEx delivery truck driver Jerry Mondestin was not responsible for the rainy day 2017 crash that killed Sari Adams Marcus, and injured her 22-month old daughter and another passenger. The crash occurred when Marcus swerved to avoid a head-on collision with an oncoming SUV in her lane, lost control of her car, and ultimately struck a concrete utility pole. The SUV had entered Marcus’s lane to pass the FedEx truck, contracted through NKM Transportation, that Mondestin had parked. FedEx argues Marcus was responsible for the crash. During Wednesday’s closings, O’Melveny’s Lee Blalack challenged the assertion that Mondestin had violated a municipal parking ordinance when he stopped his truck. Instead, he told jurors Marcus had broken the law by speeding down a wet residential road and failing to slow down as she approached the truck. “She didn’t take any effort to slow her vehicle as it approached at 70 miles an hour, [with] four vehicles passing a FedEx truck in the opposite lane, on a wet day,” Blalack said. “Her violation of both of those statutes is evidence of her negligence.”