Union County Sheriff’s Office to pay $2.5 million to family of man they killed
Malcolm Staton’s children — two of whom from the backseat saw Union County deputies fire gunshots into their father’s head — will see part of a nearly $2.5 million settlement a federal judge approved Monday.
Sheriff Eddie Cathey and four of his deputies agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit less than three months after Staton’s mother and girlfriend filed it. On Monday, Magistrate Judge David Keesler approved it in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
“It just makes me wince — for everybody concerned — what happened here,” Keesler said in court.
Fatal shooting in Monroe
Staton and his girlfriend, Cree Faulkner, stopped with Staton’s two children and Faulkner’s child at Monroe’s Sunny Food Mart around 7 p.m. on March 15, 2022. Staton left the four in the car, and he went inside the store, according to court documents. Then he came out to get more money from Faulkner to be able to pay for his items, according to court documents.
As Staton started to leave, a unmarked car with blue lights came up behind him. Then three others. He tried to go around them but was ultimately blocked, and one slammed into the back of the car he was driving, which belonged to Faulkner, surveillance video shows.
Union County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nicholas J. Kirkley, who drove the car that blocked Staton, got out of his car and fired at Staton and the car he was driving. Kirkley shot Staton twice in the back of the head and once on the side of the head. One of Kirkley’s bullets grazed Faulkner’s chest as Staton’s blood splattered onto her, the family’s wrongful death lawsuit says.
The three children watched from the backseat.
Staton died in the hospital two days later, on March 17, 2022.
According to court documents, “Deputies Hicks, Williams, Little and Kirkley, were participating in an undercover drug investigation and suspected that Mr. Staton had drugs on his person or in the vehicle.”
He didn’t, according to the family. And Staton’s record shows only speeding and traffic tickets.
“Mr. Staton never had any drugs on his person or in the vehicle at any time prior to and after the shooting,” his family wrote in the motion for a settlement.
Kirkland resigned from his job with the sheriff’s office, said Lt. James Maye, a spokesperson for the department.
Cathey and his deputies never responded to any of the claims in the complaint before agreeing to settle, court dockets show.
The sheriff’s office’s insurance will pay the family $2,437,500, according to court documents.
The money will cover Staton’s funeral and buy him a headstone — something the family hasn’t been able to afford.
After the rest of the money is dealt out to attorneys and estate managers, each of the six children who were under his care will receive $100,000 to $180,000, starting with incremental payments when they turn 18.
In this settlement, the victim’s mother, J’on Staton, is taking only an administrative fee of $28,405.51 for being estate manager. His girlfriend, who lives with a scar from a bullet that grazed her chest, will not see money from this settlement, either.
Staton’s family sought criminal charges, but the Union County District Attorney’s Office declined those, said Shean Williams, who represented the family. He added that attorneys representing the defendants began talking about settlement negotiations soon after the lawsuit was filed.
