Family of Woman Beaten to Death Sues Best Buy
The family of Evelyn Smith Udell, the 75-year-old Boca Raton, Florida woman who was fatally beaten and burned by a worker delivering a washer and dryer to her home is suing Best Buy. The wrongful-death lawsuit alleges that Best Buy, where she purchased the washer and dryer, failed to warn her of the third-party companies that they had neither investigated nor supervised for their deliveries; in this case, JB Hunt and XM Delivery Service. According to the police report, on August 19, 2019, Jorge Lachazo, 21, beat Smith Udell with a mallet, then doused her with a chemical, setting her on fire. He fled the scene in the delivery truck, while his coworker called 911. Smith Udell later died in the hospital from her injuries. “We have filed a lawsuit against Best Buy, JB Hunt and XM Delivery Service to hold them accountable for failing to conduct adequate background checks on the workers they’re sending to customers’ homes,” said Nick Panagakis, the family’s attorney...