Article Courtesy of Channel 6 News, CBS -- Orlando
By Emilee Speck
Published May 15, 2017
The parents of a 27-year-old Orlando woman, who police
said was killed in her condo in 2015 by the complex security guard, is suing
Uptown Place Condominiums, the company that made the lock on the victim’s
door and the security company that hired the suspect, according to court
records obtained by News 6.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in Ninth Judicial Circuit Court by lawyers for
Sasha Samsudean’s parents, Tara and Ken Samsudean.
Samsudean was found at on Oct. 17 the day after she came home from a night
out with friends.
The Samsudeans allege that Stephen Duxbury, who is accused of raping and
killing their daughter, was able to access her apartment by hacking the
Kwikset digital deadbolt after “running internet searches on his smartphone”
minutes before Sasha was killed, according to court records.
The security risks of the locks were reported by Wired magazine in 2013.
Kwikset redesigned the SmartKey deadbolt in January 2016 after denying that
there were any vulnerabilities in the locks.
The Uptown Place Condominium Association, Condominium Concepts Management
Inc., All American Investigators and Security LLC, Vital Security
Investigations and Spectrum Brands Inc. are also named as defendants in the
complaint, along with lock maker Kwikset Corp.
Uptown Place on North Orange Avenue and Condominium Concepts were required
to provide a safe and secure building for the victim and all other
residents, according to the lawsuit.
[READ: Info distributed at Uptown Place Apartments | WATCH: OPD holds news
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“Neither Uptown Place nor Condominium Concepts installed surveillance video
cameras to monitor the common-area hallways,” reads the lawsuit. “This
failure created the opportunity for Duxbury to break into Sasha Samsudean’s
apartment while she was asleep without detection or interference.”
The couple is suing Vital Security, the company that hired Duxbury as a
security guard, because the suspect had a criminal history and mental health
issues, lawyer Richard Newsome wrote in the complaint.
Duxbury was hired in 2015 and started working at Uptown Place in May 2015.
“Not long after Duxbury started patrolling the Uptown Place Apartments,
residents began to complain about Duxbury and his behavior,” according to
the lawsuit.
The complaints were submitted to Vital Security as well as Uptown Place and
Condominium Concepts, Newsome wrote.
The lawsuit describes several of the incidents reported to the companies,
including a young female resident who said in May 2015 that Duxbury was
"acting sketchy" after he followed her back to her apartment.
"Despite this knowledge, (the companies) failed to take any action to
investigate the complaints about Duxbury" or reassign him, according to the
lawsuit.
According to Vital Security, Duxbury was a former member of the armed
services with an honorable discharge and was fully licensed in Florida to be
a security guard.
Officials said Duxbury passed all background checks and had no criminal
background.
After Duxbury’s arrest in November 2015, Orlando police called the murder “a
crime of opportunity by a man working in what should have been the
protective service of the residents of Uptown Place Apartments.”
"This crime could have happened in any apartment complex in any city in the
United States," Orlando police Chief John Mina said.
Duxbury, 33, is awaiting trial on first-degree murder, sexual battery and
burglary charges for the Oct. 17 homicide.
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