Shane Ragland, the man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a former UK football player, is requesting a new civil trial.

On Aug. 19, a jury ruled Ragland owed the family of Trent DiGiuro $63 million in punitive damages. DiGiuro, a former UK offensive lineman, was shot and killed in 1994 on Woodland Ave.

Ragland and his attorneys did not attend the first civil trial for the wrongful death suit. Ragland’s attorney Steven Romines told the Kernel in an Aug. 27 article that they felt it wasn’t necessary to argue the case.

“The jury decided based on the guilty plea that liability was determined,” Romines said in the article. “We didn’t feel it was necessary to contest that issue. Whatever (the jury) said was fine with us.”

The motion is not necessarily to get a new trial, Romines said, but it is procedural to change the amount awarded to the DiGiuro family.

“Punitive damages by law do not exceed compensatory damages by a multiple of 10. In this case they were multiplied by 20,” Romines said.

Trent DiGiuro’s father, Mike DiGiuro, said he thinks Ragland is just trying to postpone the consequences of the original verdict.

“(His request) is just to put off facing this for as long as he can,” Mike DiGiuro said. “If he was concerned about the trial he would have been there the first time.”

The motion for a new trial will go before a judge who will determine if there are valid grounds for a new case. Thomas Conway, the DiGiuro’s attorney, called the request a “frivolous appeal.”

“It is rather unusual that they didn’t even appear at the trial… they had no objections,” Conway said. “And now he is saying the jury awarded too much in punitive damages.”

The claim that the $63 million is too much money is unfounded, Conway said, since during the civil trial, Ragland and his attorneys offered a $50 million judgment to the DiGiuro family.

A judge will review the motion and then could decide to change the amount of the verdict or let the decision stand, Romines said, or the case could go to the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

Conway said he does not expect the new trial to take place because Ragland does not have much standing.

“I don’t think it has any chance at all,” he said. “I would be shocked.”

DiGiuro said in an Aug. 27 issue of the Kernel that he did not expect to see any of the $63 million his family was awarded, but it was more about the principle.

“For somebody with no money, he sure is spending a lot on lawyers,” he said.