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A federal judge ordered a former Oxford, Miss. police officer, who pleaded guilty to capital murder, to pay $2.2 million to four children of his Black mistress he killed in 2019.
Matthew Kinne, 39, was ordered by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson on May 26 to pay Dominique Clayton’s children, ages 11-17, $1.2 million in compensatory damages. In the ruling, Judge Davidson said Kinne’s actions “were intentional, wanton, willful and reckless,” awarding another $1 million in punitive damages, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.
Kinne is serving a life sentence without parole for killing 32-year-old Clayton in May 2019 after she ended their relationship and threatened to tell his wife about the affair.
The judge initially scheduled an evidentiary hearing to determine the damages. However, he canceled the hearing and made a default ruling after Kinne failed to respond to the lawsuit that Clayton’s family filed in August 2021.
Though the family asked for $10 million, their attorney Carlos Moore was pleased by Judge Davidson’s decision.
“I believe this is the largest verdict or judgment ever in Mississippi in an excessive force case, and I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” Moore said in a telephone interview.
While Kinne has no source of income, Moore believes Clayton’s family can receive the money if they can prove Kinne was in uniform when the 32-year-old was killed.
“Hope springs eternal,” Moore said. “The million-dollar question is whether his actions were within the scope of his employment. If we can show that, then the city (of Oxford) will need to indemnify (and pay Kinne’s damages). We will be looking at all aspects of the law.”
Clayton’s sister, Shyjuan, told Fox 13 Memphis that her sister was having an affair with the former police officer and that Clayton was asleep when she was murdered.
“She was having an affair with Matt, the police officer with OPD,” Shyjuan explained. “(He was) real possessive and stalking her… kept sneaking in her house. I guess he did this so he wouldn’t have to tell the wife.”
“He bought my sister a car and kept it in his name,” Shyjuan continued. “He was about to get her a house. He just basically didn’t want his wife to find out.”
Clayton’s children returned home after spending the weekend at their uncle’s house. When her son went inside to lure his mother out for a family prank, he instead emerged from the home and told his siblings that she was dead.
According to court documents, Kinne broke into Clayton’s home during a wellness check and reportedly shot her in the back of the head.
“I feel like it was unnecessary,” Shyjuan told the outlet. “My sister didn’t deserve to have this done to her. My sister has four kids. Her kids have to grow up without a mom.”
For over 60 years, Mississippi was known as the most segregated state in the United States. From the brutal torture and lynching of Emmitt Till, who was killed after he supposedly whistled at a white woman in 1955, to civil rights activist Medger Evers being shot and killed at his doorstep in 1963, the 20th state in the nation has preserved its history of racism then. Still, it maintains the same discrimination against Black Americans today.
Though Clayton and Kinne weren’t married, she decided to engage in a secret relationship with a white man in a state that still protects its racist roots. At the time, his lawyer Tony Farese said his client was “remorseful” after killing his 32-year-old mistress and that he “broke” at the thought of his wife finding out about the affair.
Could it be that he was trying to protect his image and didn’t want anyone, including his wife, to know that he was cheating on her with a Black woman? There are plenty of white men in this country who are known to be white supremacists while conserving their sexual fetishes for Black women. The fact that Kinne shot Clayton in cold blood tells more about him and what he may have been covering up than worrying about his wife finding out.
The ex-police officer worked for the Oxford Police Department for four years and was fired shortly after the murder.
The children’s aunt said they should have received “a quarter-million dollars each for pain and suffering and a total of more than $300,000 to cover therapy,” per the Associated Press.