By Minyvonne Burke -
NBC News
A Latina woman unsuccessfully pleaded with administrators at the apartment complex where she lived in New Jersey to change the locks on her door after obtaining a restraining order against her husband for abuse, according to a lawsuit filed by her family, which claims that the landlord's refusal to do so made it easier for her to be stabbed to death by her partner along with her two children in the home.
Ruth Esther Reyes de Severino and her two children, Eurianny, 5, and Eury, 2, were murdered on February 5, 2020. Police found the bodies in the family's Penns Grove Gardens apartment after finding the remains of the woman's husband, Eugenio Severino, in a nearby park, the lawsuit indicates.
The document indicates that
Eugenio Severino committed suicide
after having killed his family.
Penns Grove Police did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.
The lawsuit, filed last month in Salem County Superior Court, alleges wrongful death, breach of contract and negligent hiring.
List the defendants as Penns Grove Gardens;
its operator, Housing Management Resources;
and Roger J. Gendron, identified as a "managing member" of Penns Grove Apartments and Penns Grove Gardens.
Photo of Penns Grove apartment complex in New Jersey Capture via NBC News
Management of the apartment complex and its operator also did not respond to a request for comment, and
Gendron could not be
reached on the phone number listed in his name.
In January 2020, just weeks before the murders, Reyes de Severino obtained a restraining order against her husband, expelling him from the department.
The lawsuit alleges that Eugenio Severino had threatened to kill her on several occasions. Reyes de Severino informed her building management of the restraining order and asked that the locks on her doors be changed, because her husband still had a set of keys.
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"Ruth Reyes de Severino
asked, indeed, begged, the landlord of Penns Grove Apartments LLC to change the locks
so that her husband could not enter," the lawsuit says.
He made at least five requests in person to have the locks changed, said Samuel D. Jackson, an attorney representing his family.
She
had
also
warned that her husband posed a danger to her and her children, she
said.
"Despite the fact that the tenant feared for her own safety, as well as that of her two young children," she adds, "the respondent landlord denied the request."
Eugenio Severino used his keys to enter the apartment and stab his wife and children, the lawsuit indicates.
[Autopsy confirms Brian Laundrie took his own life with a gunshot to the head]
"Women and their children should not fear for their lives, or lose them, because their tenants and the parties they contract with are not keeping them and their children safe," Jackson said in a statement released Tuesday.
The lawsuit also claims that the apartment complex failed to follow a Penns Grove ordinance that was created in response to the shooting death of Tayshon Hayward at the same location in 2019.
The ordinance says that all apartment complexes in the municipality have to install exterior cameras and lights to improve security.
"
The defendants in this case didn't even bother to follow a law
that was passed to address their own bad behavior after someone else lost their life in similar circumstances on their property less than a year earlier," Jackson said.
[They honor the child Iran Moreno, who died from a stray bullet in Pasadena with a vigil]
"The anticipated outcome was an even worse tragedy," he added, "We hope this lawsuit sends a message to the New Jersey tenant community and makes them realize that
the safety and health of their tenants must come first. all considerations
, especially financial benefits. "
If you know someone who suffers from domestic violence, you can seek help in Spanish at
https://espanol.thehotline.org/
or call
800.799.SAFE
, which does not leave a trace in the registry.
