The fiance of the woman who fell to her death from a window at the W Atlanta-Midtown hotel has petitioned to be named the legal guardian of LaShawna Threatt’s teenage daughter, according to a law firm that filed a wrongful death suit.
Attorney Shean Williams with the Cochran Firm said Threatt’s family agrees that fiance LaRay Hamilton should be 14-year-old Imonee Williams’ guardian.
Hamilton and Threatt's mother, Sharon Traylor, also asked the Fulton County Probate Court on Thursday to name them co-executors of Threatt's estate "in the continued effort to protect the interest of LaShawna’s minor daughter," according to a statement from the law firm.
"Sharon Traylor and other family and friends thought it was in the best interest of Imonee" to stay in Atlanta with Hamilton. "Uprooting her now would be the last thing she needs."
Traylor lives in California, he said. Imonee Williams will turn 15 this month and is established in school and with friends, Shean Williams said.
Threatt was celebrating her 30th birthday on May 28 when she and a friend, Cierra Williams, crashed through a window in Room 1012 of the W hotel on 14th Street; witnesses said the two were horseplaying when a portion of the floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall glass shattered. Both fell onto a slanted sunroof adjoining the hotel. Threatt stayed on the sunroof, but Williams rolled off and onto the ground and was critically injured.
Traylor and Threatt's father, Maurice Threatt, filed separate lawsuits a week ago accusing the hotel of negligence. Traylor's lawsuit said the action was taken on behalf of her granddaughter; Hamilton also is a part of the action. Maurice Threatt's suit said it was brought on behalf of his daughter's estate.
One of the petitions filed Thursday asks the probate court to "create an estate" and to appoint Traylor and Hamilton co-executors.
Once that is settled, Traylor and Hamilton will file a claim "to recover for all the pain and suffering the victim endured during the fall and prior to her death," according to the Cochran Firm.
Shean Williams, one of three attorneys representing Traylor and Hamilton, said Imonee Williams asked her grandmother and her mother's fiance to take the legal steps they are taking. A spokeswoman for the firm said the girl had no relationship with her father.
"LaRay Hamilton, with complete support of the victim’s family, has also filed a petition to be appointed legal guardian of Imonee Williams so that he can continue to support and care for her as he did with LaShawna for the past five years," the firm's statement said. "Both of these petitions were filed at the specific request of Imonee Williams and to comply with her strong desire to continue to live in Atlanta under the guidance and protection of Sharon Traylor and LaRay Hamilton."
The two wrongful death suits that LaShawna Threatt's parents filed in Fulton County State Court claim the glass in the 10th-floor room was defective and improperly installed.
According to the hotel's management, no concerns were raised "about the safety or security" of the windows when the property was inspected "when it became a part of the W brand in 2008.″
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