Family of Murdered Intern Sues Pa. Co.

The victim was drugged and strangled by his boss in 2006.

The family of a murdered 23-year-old from North Dakota is suing the Pennsylvania company where he was interning at the time of his death.

The victim’s parents, Kyle and Carol Shephard, have filed a civil suit in a Delaware County Court against Daktronics Inc., the company where their son Jason Shephard and his murderer William Smithson both worked. The suit alleges that the Edgmont company had a responsibility to screen backgrounds of their employees, reports the Delaware County Daily Times

According to the paper
, the suit claims that Smithson, 46, who is serving a life sentence for the crime, told people that he had “A sexual fantasy to secretly administer GHB (date rape drug) to a straight male, rendering him unconscious, so that he could take him where, where he would rape him.”

Jason Shephard, a college student in town for an internship, was found drugged and strangled in the bedroom of his supervisor’s Glen Mills home in 2006.

Daktronics has denied any responsibility in the death of Shephard.

“Defendant Daktronics Inc. did not know or have any reason to know that William Smithson had violent propensities or was a danger to any employee at Daktronics, including Jason Shephard at any time during his employment,’” the firm’s attorney Joseph J. Santarone told the Delco Times.

The paper reports that testimony is set to begin on Monday.

      

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