Cullen Davis still owes money from mansion death case

Cullen Davis, the former millionaire acquitted of gunning down two people in his mansion in 1976, is being sued for not paying on a 12-year-old judgment stemming from the notorious murder case.

Jon and Heather Farr, children of the late Stan Farr, filed a lawsuit in Tarrant County civil court Wednesday seeking to collect $250,000, and the accrued interest, from a 2003 judgment against Davis after he failed to honor out-of-court settlements from 1990 and 1993.

Their father was a former TCU basketball player and the live-in boyfriend of Davis’ ex-wife, Priscilla. He was killed along with Davis’ 12-year-old stepdaughter at the Davis mansion in Fort Worth by a mysterious “man in black.”

Davis was acquitted of capital murder in the girl’s slaying and of murder-for-hire charges in connection with his divorce case in the 1970s. At the time, he was the richest man in America to be tried on a murder charge.

“Never got a dime,” Jon Farr, a software designer, said in a telephone interview from the Kansas City, Mo., area. While the lawsuit seeks no more than $1 million, Farr calculates that Davis owes $1.5 million to $2 million when interest from the original deal is added.

“I’m not mad or disappointed. I’m free from the hurt that was done to us. This is really about accountability,” Farr said. His sister lives in the Kansas City area, too.

Attempts by the Star-Telegram to reach Davis at his office in downtown Fort Worth were unsuccessful Wednesday. Davis lives in Colleyville, according to court documents.

This is the second time Farr’s children have gone to state court to collect money from Davis.

Davis originally agreed to pay the Farrs in a settlement he reached with their mother, Karen, in federal court in February 1990. At the time, both children were minors: Jon Farr was 17, and Heather was 16. Davis had agreed to pay the children $125,000 each.

Three years later, the agreement was amended in an attempt to recover some, if not all, of the money. Davis was supposed to have paid by 1997, but the Farrs said two local law firms mismanaged their case and failed to collect.

By 2002, when Davis still had not paid up, the Farrs returned to state district court. At the time, Davis’ attorneys argued that they waited too long to collect.

But almost a year later, the judge ruled in favor of the Farrs and declared the judgment valid and enforceable.

Davis never appealed that ruling, according to court records.

“He made a commitment to pay us some money, and I take him at his word,” Farr said.

This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published August 12, 2015 at 6:27 PM.