Preston Lord’s parents file suit

The parents of an Arizona teen who died after he was attacked as he left a Halloween party last year have filed a lawsuit naming the seven teens and young adults accused of beating him and the residents of the home where the party took place , are called.

Preston Lord, 16, died at a hospital after the Oct. 28 party at Roberto and Emily Correa’s home in Queen Creek, Arizona, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday and obtained by FOX affiliate KSAZ-TV. His death, which was eventually ruled a homicide, led to a lengthy police investigation that resulted in murder charges for the seven suspects, who ranged in age from 17 to 20.

The civil lawsuit accuses them and the Correas of negligence, claiming the two adults were responsible for the nearly 200 people, many of them minors, who attended the party.

According to the lawsuit, the house party was advertised on social media as a “Halloween Rager,” with an open invitation where alcohol was served. The Correas were in the home at the time and were reportedly not supervising the people in their backyard.

Roberto Correa ended the party only after hearing about an altercation, the lawsuit said.

Queen Creek police previously said this in a news release that they received a call on their non-emergency line at around 9pm on October 28 and later found a number of young people leaving the party. Officers were then transferred to a higher priority call.

Police returned to the party less than an hour later after a report of an assault and found Lord lying in the street with life-threatening injuries, the news release said. He was taken to hospital and died two days later.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told multiple local outlets that tensions began when Lord and a friend attempted to recover a gold chain taken from a friend, and the indictment accused several suspects of taking property from the victims.

The suspects, whose ages are listed when the attack occurred, were Talan Renner, 17, Talyn Vigil, 17, William Owen Hines, 17, Dominic Turner, 20, Taylor Sherman, 18, Treston Biley, 18, and Jacob Meisner, 16. each charged as adults with murder and kidnapping, according to court documents reviewed by JS. Billey and Meisner were additionally charged with aggravated robbery, and all have pleaded not guilty.

According to the lawsuit, they were drunk at the time and chased Lord and his friends and restrained him. They then allegedly struck Lord in the head and other parts of his body until he became unconscious.

Renner’s parents were also named in the lawsuit, which alleged they were negligent and should have known of “their son’s propensity to commit violence and cause bodily harm to others.”

The lawsuit cited multiple instances of Renner’s “violence,” including an alleged attack between 2022 and 2023 on another resident of a treatment center in Hurricane, Utah.

Bryn DeFusco, an attorney representing the Lord family, told JS in an email that they “seek justice and accountability for all who contributed to Preston’s death.”

“This lawsuit brings them one step closer to achieving that goal. They are grateful for the community’s support and are committed to seeing this through to the end,” DeFusco said.

Previous reports from AZFamily highlighted the police attention on the Riders. Police reports quoted by the outlet claimed that his father took Talan Renner to a family cabin about a three-hour drive from their home after the attack.

The father’s ex-girlfriend told police that their lawyer advised him to let his son’s hands heal before bringing him back to town, the newspaper said. She reportedly described Renner as an “angry boy” who “holds a lot of aggression,” and “when he snaps, he snaps.”

Lawyers were not listed in the civil records of the suspects and their parents. Talan Renner’s criminal defense attorney did not immediately respond to JS’s request for comment.