Law&Crime Sidebar - Instagram 'Beef' Spirals Into Deadly Shooting

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

An Instagram beef turned deadly when a gunman opened fire at a Florida pop-up marijuana event, killing innocent bystander Vinh Chung. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber sat down with Morgan & Morgan attorney Varun Raminirine, who represented Chung’s family in a civil lawsuit, to talk about both the criminal and civil cases connected with the devoted father’s death.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A lot was something at 50, Cortland Street. You have 50thortland Street. We're still in Florida. An apparent Instagram beef in Florida led to real-world consequences when a gunman allegedly opened fire on a pop-up marijuana event. Right here. Here, here's your entrance room. Right here.

We have dug through the body camera footage, police reports, interrogations, and more to try to see how police were able to track down their main suspect. Ramon. What's up, brother? Stay up, ma'am. We'll take some of these tough stuff off. And we are going to be sitting down with our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan, the powerhouse law firm that was able to secure more than $10 million for the victim's family. Welcome to Sidebar.

Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. By the way, one of the reasons we can follow a story like this is because of the incredible support that we get from our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan. This is America's largest personal injury law firm. This is a firm with over 1,000 attorneys who have recovered $25 billion for more than $500,000 clients. In the past few months alone, a client in Florida received $12 million when insurance offered just $350,000. Out in Pennsylvania, another client was awarded $26 million. That is 40 times the insurers offer. And Morgan and Morgan, they make it easy to fight for what you deserve.

You can even start a claim from your phone. So if you're injured, you can start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. You can click the link below or you can scan the QR code on screen. The family of a Florida man who is gunned down in a business park where a pop-up marijuana, was going on, was recently awarded $11 million, and that is all thanks to a civil lawsuit that was filed on their behalf by our sponsors here at Sidebar. We talk about them all the time, Morgan and Morgan. Now we are showing you how they operate in action. This is a real-life example. So as the man who is accused in this absolutely senseless shooting awaits his criminal trial,

we're going to be taking an in-depth look at the evidence, how this apparent case of wrong place, wrong time unfolded. And a little bit later on, we're bringing on. Morgan and Morgan's attorney, Varun Ramneryne, to analyze the civil side of this story, the $11 million. Now, according to police and prosecutors in Orange County, Florida, we're talking about Ramon Luis Arroyo Galva, took a dispute from the online space to the real world, opening fire outside an office park and allegedly hitting an innocent bystander during his barrage of bullets. And after the shooting happened at around 9 p.m. on November 17, 2021, you had Orange County officials, released surveillance video. And it was showing a man dressed in long black pants, black shoes,

a hooded sweatshirt, gloves. You have a hail of bullets hitting the building, and then the man takes off. And investigators believe they say that man is a royal galva. And it would be more than a year before he was arrested. But it's when you take a closer look at the evidence in this case that you can see how police determined, in their view, he was their man. Now before we dive into the details of what happened on Cortland Street in Orlando that night. I got to introduce you to just some of the main characters, the players in the story to make sense of it. At the time of the shooting in 2021, then 21-year-old, Royo Galva was out on bail in Orange County because he was awaiting trial and drug charges. But prior to that, he had been arrested in 2018 for pushing his way into

his ex-girlfriend's house and punching her dad multiple times in the face because he wanted a necklace back. By the way, two other important people in this case that we need to talk about. They're identified only as Witness 2 and Witness 3 in court documents. According to detailed police records and affidavits and arrest warrants, Royal Galva wanted or seemingly wanted to be in a sexual relationship with Witness 3. She told police the two had communicated on Instagram, but when they were hanging out once and he tried to kiss her, she blocked him. And here's the main crux of the dispute.

She claims a Royal Galva called her boyfriend, Witness 2, to try to cause problems. and just days before the shooting. An Instagram account reportedly connected to a Royal Galva with the handle Pot of Gold Co. posted a new story. And that story read, quote, How I Sleep at Night knowing I'm the reason why a couple is getting into a fight and arguing. The next day, investigators claim that a Royal Galva and witness to, they cross paths at this cannabis pop-up party on the south side of Orlando.

And these kinds of events, while purporting to be for those, you know, with medical marijuana cards, they kind of operate on the edge of legality. In fact, later court paperwork that was filed on the civil side would describe the parties as a way to, quote, engage in the unregulated sale of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms. So with all that in mind, Arroyo Galva and witnessed two, they allegedly got into a fight at that south side event before separating. And then just one day after that, November 17th,

there was another pop-up cannabis event on the north side of Orlando. And that brings us to the man who's really at the same. center of this whole story, the person that we should really be talking about. The victim, Vin Chung. He was a 43-year-old beloved father who just happened to be attending the same pop-up event as Witness 2 at the Cortland Avenue Office Park. Police say he was standing on the other side of a glass window, which had its curtains drawn, when a Royal Galva allegedly started firing indiscriminately. Witness 2. So the likely intended target here, if we believe these accusations took off, was uninjured, according to deputies, but it was Vin Chung who suffered,

and it was his family who suffered. When armed police descended on this scene, it kind of took them a minute to figure out where exactly in this large complex the shooting had happened, but then it quickly became clear. So, we're still in a 50-courtland street. So deputies, they climb through the broken glass door to the unit, and they find Vin-Chung bleeding on the ground, a woman in workout gear, was trying to help him. Right here.

He was hit right here. Here's your entrance room right here. Fire apartments right here. I was going compression. I don't know what else to do. But I feel like he's not breathing. I wanted to start compressions. Do you feel a pulse?

He's... Here, we got it. We got it, we got it. You sure? I'll do compressions? I'll help. You have a party in here. I don't even know what was going on.

I'm just working out. Now this is important when we talk. talk about the lawsuit later on. It turns out that at least two of the building's first floor units were connected with a gym on the other side. And deputies, they had searched this maze of hallways to make sure, you know, that the gunman wasn't still on site somewhere. And this was all as paramedics rushed Chung to the hospital. And sadly, he didn't survive. A medical examiner later concluded after an autopsy that Chung died from a gunshot wound to the chest. According to the police reports, deputies found 1840 caliber cartridge casings outside of the building, all

believed to have been fired from the same gun. And inside, they discovered around 14 pounds of cannabis and several edible cannabis items. The deputies quickly ruled out armed robbery because Chung still had close to $2,000 in cash on him. It would have make sense. And according to an affidavit that was filed in support of an arrest warrant, it says, quote, based on the crime scene observations, it did not appear that the suspect knew who he was shooting at and shot indiscriminately through the window inadvertently striking Vin Chung. It was clear that Vin Chung attended the cannabis pop-up parties, but no evidence of anyone wanting to murder Vintchung was located. Additionally, no evidence of any recent feud was located within the phone of Vinh Chung.

So while technicians processed the crime scene, you had deputies who were interviewing witnesses, and that included the woman who was exercising at that gym next door when all this gunfire broke out. I'm working out, okay? The door was shut between us and them. I don't know what's going on over there. Okay. And so I'm working out and all of a sudden I hear shots ring out. And we normally keep tape on our door so that you can come in and out of the door because the gym's open all day. So when I heard it, we're going to walk over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when I heard it, my first instinct was to flick the light off and we had windows open. Okay. So my whole thing was, I don't know where this shooter is. So I shut the lights off. I ripped the tape. I shut it and I run. and I locked the door in between them and us. And I literally went around and shut all my windows first before I called anybody. And this is a big night, that's the only weapon a half.

And then finally, I said, to Rick, I said, I've got to go over there and see what happened. I said, we have to. And he was like, wait, wait, wait, don't go yet. Don't go yet. And I was like, we just got to see. And all these people, chaos, scrambling. They're like, where's my stuff?

And they're all, like, running to leave. And I'm like, if anyone hit, is anyone hit? And I saw the guy, I ran and got my gloves to see if I could find out where it, find where the wound was, and see if I could put compression on them. And then I ran and called you guys. Oh, okay. You did all of the right things. And I know you're really upset right now.

You've been through a lot. Okay. And I know we're asking a lot of questions right now. And I know you need to piece it together. The Orange County Sheriff's Office says that in the days after the killing, they got a tip that a Royal Galva had been in a fight at the first pop-up event with another Hispanic male, the one that I mentioned before. That's witness, too. So he agrees to come in with his lawyer to speak with detectives. Just going to be honest with you, we don't think, we don't suspect you in anything. We're really just looking at as a witness potentially.

And just wanted some information that you knew or might know about the homicide of Vin Chu. All right, for the record, did you know Vin? No, I don't know him. I haven't seen him all over social media. You happen to you. All over. Like that guy's all over the media right now. Is it? Okay.

Like a famous person. Because of the homicide or? I don't really know too much. Like I said to my lawyer and I'll say it to you guys. I was at an after hour spot. Just chilling and viving. Some kid had beef with me on social media. Me and the kid got into a physical altercation.

After that, they tried to shoot up the place. The second time I went back to the AFTIs just to pay my respect. You know what I'm saying? because we got into a fight, I was trying to tell the owner, like, yo, my bad for fighting in your spot, he was like, yo, it's all good. Went inside, I chill for like, I want to say 10 minutes. 10 minutes, gunshot start going on.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bong. Everybody ran. Once everybody ran, I left. The only reason why I didn't get contact with y'all is because I ain't trying to get into no-h-h-hut-not-y-not-choo. I got you. Yeah what I'm saying? Now, Witness 2 apparently told detectives that he was taking heat from people online

who thought that he set off the chain reaction that led to Chung's murder. In his interview, he referred to Chung's murder. He referred to Chung by the nickname Asian. Take a listen. Who's this? That's the Instagram post that I... That's the dude. That's the dude I was talking about.

No, this is me posting this, and this is a screenshot from me to the person. So did you write that? I wrote this screenshot, yeah. Okay. What is that talking about? Where it says, I wish it was me on the bottom into the Asian. No, because the Asian was dead.

So I know that they were... They have... for me. So I felt bad that, you know, everybody's blaming, everybody blamed me. Did you know Vin as Asian? I knew him as Asian, because, you know, he's an Asian gentleman. So we used to be like, yo, that's the Asian for my, you got to see him in the casinos. I see him a little place. Big to eight. The Super Bowl's these big time. So I used to, you know, I felt bad because everybody's blaming me. They're like, oh, it's your fault. It's your fault. You got to fight with the kid. If you didn't get into a fight with the kid, this is not beat that.

So I'm like, damn, you know, I feel bad. Text you that. I feel bad because I don't. I feel bad because I ain't. I ain't want that to happen to him, you know what I just wanted to know why. If the kid would have just say, yo, this is why I wanted to fight you? Like if it was, oh, you slept with my girl or you was texting my lady. I'd be like, yo, fam, if that's what it is, my bad. Did you sleep with his girlfriend? No, I don't know him.

I don't know who his girlfriend would be. I don't know him like from Adam and Eve. You get what I'm saying? And it's just everybody's translating me. So I sent that to the promoter, and he was like, yo, like, I'm going to try to help you. Because I know everybody's killing you. Everybody's like, literally, they were like, yo, you're a bad guy. You're the problem.

you come in off and chilling with this dude I'm like yo bro like I didn't I didn't kill nobody I didn't put no guns on nobody do you feel like this was retaliation for the fight respectfully yeah yeah respectfully yeah did he at making it is because you got your assu-you pull out your gun

I see it as a typical Florida move I'm not from Florida typical Florida move you get to physical altercation you get beat up now you pick it up a gun because it was literally the same motion before boom after we done fought it out he went right to the car I'm thinking he's from leave I don't think it's over. You know what I'm saying?

No, they're like, yo, he's shooting, shooting, shooting. I got to my car and I slid. And detectives also cut up with Witness 3. So this is Witness 2's one-time girlfriend, right, to see what she had to say about all this. Do you know anything about the homicide about the fight between Rommon? I mean, I heard some things about it,

but I was not there to witness anything. What did you hear? I just heard that Ramon was trying to, because I honestly blocked Ramon's number, and I was not trying to talk to him, and I think he got in his feelings, and that's why he tried to go find the jop. Okay.

But that's pretty much the gist of what I heard, and I heard that he was the one who approached him. He started fighting him. Okay. Because I honestly had gotten mad at s' and I was like, oh my gosh, why are you fighting people? Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it wasn't, apparently his remote that had initiated it with me.

Where you came to look for it? He came, okay. And where did you? Where did you hear that from? Honestly, just from someone that I know. Was it B. Or was it somebody else? No, it was a third person.

Would you be comfortable giving me their name? Honestly, no. This is the older person that I want to get involved. That's okay. That's what I guess. They're just taking out for me telling me. Okay. Then you go to January 5th, 2022.

So this is more than a month after the shooting. And Royal Galva was in the passenger seat of a car that was pulled over for a tent violation. He was reportedly found with Cassidy. and drug paraphernalia. This is according to court paperwork. Deputies, they take possession of his phone and then they bring him in for an interview with detectives. Ramon. What's that, brother? Stand up for me. I'm going to take some of these cuffs off.

I guess you had a dime bag on here or something today? Yeah, I had like, well, I kind of found a weird because, like, I got caught with like a little more than that in one time, but they didn't take me here. Okay, gotcha. You didn't come up here on your own, right? What do you mean? You didn't just come in here on your own. You didn't drive your car up here, coming here. I was in my friend's car, and he, I guess we got put over because of his tints. Right. I guess he, uh...

You're putting a handcuffs. Yeah. He said that I didn't have the marijuana in the medical container. What I'm getting at is I have to read your rights in order for me to talk to you, right? For me to ask you questions, I'm not asking questions about the weed. I could care less about the weed. All right, so what I want you to do is listen to me, and if you have any questions, let me know, all right? Listen, man, I'm not here about the weed.

I'm here about something a little bit. It's bigger. I was told you got into a fight with somebody about a month ago. You got into a at a, at a, at a, at a, a vape shop. You got into a fight with a guy over a girl, over some Instagram. Uh, no. You remember? No, I don't remember.

But me, don't call. You don't recall getting into a fight? Yeah, I do, but, like, I don't see how that it has to do with my win-in-law. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. You got into a fight with this guy? Over our Instagram posts? Uh.

Did you get into a fight? I didn't get into a fight. I actually got jumped. That's what I'm here. You got jumped. Did he rob you? No. So what mean you got jumped?

No, like I was at a, like a, it was like a vague shop, yeah, you can say. And I was, a pop-up? A we pop-up. Yeah, I was, we did. That's all good. All of a sudden, I just got jumped. Out of nowhere. Yeah, and then, but yeah, I did, like, his girl, you know, me and his girl, like her pretty cool and stuff.

And he didn't like that. Yeah, I don't know if he did it was exactly him. was like that's all I do like that's the only person that would do you know him from facebook or Instagram I actually don't know him okay but do you know of his like of his like Instagram handle you know how people go by Instagram? No I don't know him like that I don't know I just know him because his girl used to talk to me about I seen him pick his girl. Honestly I don't know if he's the one not jummy but it was like multiple people

like it was like 10 people so okay so but you had a thing going with his girl Kind of like we remember her name? What you went by? I think it was just, I don't know. But it's really cool like that. I got you. Basically, I did this one time, and I went to one of these, like, Papa's, as you said. And then I was, you know, practice some.

Yeah. And then I just got jumped. Like, I got hit. And then, like, I was just covered up. And then I, like, my boys came to get me able to it. And then we just left. Okay. And do you remember what day that was? But it was security. There was security there.

Yeah, I know. I got the video. I couldn't really see it. Do you remember what day that was? No. Okay. Well, it was November 16, 2021. It was a Tuesday. Okay. Do you know where it happened? Not exactly. Do you know what part of town? Nah, I was in my, I'm my boys loop. So I don't know.

It was that. So the detective asks him, asks Arroyo Galva about this pot of gold Instagram account that I mentioned before. And Royalva swears. up and down that it isn't his. The thing is, investigators, they are able to connect it to an email address, which is apparently in his name. So here's the thing, man, the very next day, right, at, we had a homicide. And we have all kinds of video, high definition, high definition video, tag readers, we got it all.

And so if I can tell you that at 1117 at 9 p.m. that you weren't home and that you were, in fact, at 850 Cortland Street where the homicide occurred at the We Popup Party. Like I haven't done my research, I've kind of, I've kind of, I've kind of, I've kind of not a- I'm like, okay. Well, it's just, what's convenient is just right after this, you got rid of your phone, got a new number, got a new handset, you sold the call. I was planning to do that anyway.

We were planning to do that anyway. Yeah, I wasn't, my black wasn't really going. I planned over here. I was going to UTI and stuff. What's UTI? A universal technical institute. and I ended up getting terminated because of my attendance and stuff. So I didn't, I was, I couldn't really find a job over here.

My mom. So then would you agree that if I had somebody on camera that looks a hell of a lot like you, very good high definition video shooting into this building, and I can prove that you were there and not at home, then would I, should I just arrest you for the murder? There's probably not a video like that. Oh, would you like to see it? I wasn't dead.

Would you like to see the video? I mean, not really because I know it's not. me so I'm okay but what I'm saying is if I can prove that you weren't home at 9 o'clock on November 17th like you just told me then do would you agree that then I could say that you're in fact lying to me and you probably did do the murder and that would that be enough to convince you that you did this I mean there's I highly doubt there's any video of me no no I can show you all the video of you guys running back to the car there's two people you and the chubber guy that ran through the vacant field in the black car

you guys went down in it you turned parked in front of the vacant Fields used the cut, went in there, he stayed back, and then you joined him? Like, do you think I just made this up? No, I wasn't saying he made this up, but maybe it like... So would you like to sit down and review this video, and maybe you can identify yourself off that video? No, I don't... You don't want to do that?

I mean, you can show me the video, like, I don't have a problem with that, but, like, I don't know. I can't help you anymore than I already have. Do you have a firearm? I don't own any firearm. Have you ever bought a firearm? No, I can't buy firearms. You've never had a clock 9mm.

No, I actually tried to buy one, and they said, I, I don't know. I couldn't because I had a withhold. And then I got arrested for some weed, and I ended up getting my weed card. So what is it possible that you were just at that weed pop-up party on the 17th when this incident happened, and you were just a witness? No, I don't even go. Is that possible? No, I don't even go. Like, I really don't go to those like that, but I went to that pop-up, but I really don't go, like, often, like, to those.

Right. You know, a lot of times I talk to people like this, and the main thing is they're like, man, I just stay at the house. I never spoke to so many people. I didn't stand at the house. I mean, I didn't say I stand the house. I know. You kept trying to tell me that I stand at the house. Which is, I understand.

You're trying to, like, I don't know. What I'm trying to do is I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything. But oftentimes telling me one thing and me proving elsewhere and having all this video and then proving you were there, that looks really bad. Whereas if you were just honest and said, listen, I'd be the day before, I went there, my buddy tried to scare him. And I'm a witness. That's believable because the guy, it was a total innocent person.

Yeah, I understand. Right? And so that's what I'm trying to say is if that did happen and you are just a witness, that is completely different. And despite the detective consistently countering Royo Galva's statements with pieces of information that he's learned, the suspect continues to insist he couldn't possibly be involved. In fact, he says he's never been to Cortland Street. Wouldn't even know where it is, despite the pot of gold Instagram account,

seemingly sharing an event bright invitation link for that night's pop-up event there. You've never been in court, no. So that's what I'm trying to say. If you said you never happened and I can prove that you were there, then would that, is that fair enough to say that you're a murderer? No. I mean, because I wasn't there. Like, I don't, I wasn't there. Like, I don't know what else I could tell you. I kind of want to talk to the attorney. Okay. Do you do you swear that you told me the truth today? Yeah, I want to talk to the attorney. Because like, I just find everything kind of strange. But you swear you tell me the truth and you raise the right hand?

I won't one this. Do you swear you tell me the truth today? Yeah, I did. I swear. Okay. And you want to talk to an attorney? Yes, sir. According to the arrest affidavit, deputies, they held onto Arroyo Galva's phone. They got a search warrant for it.

And that was the next stage because it turns out, Aroa Galva had changed his cell phone number. According to the arrest warrant affidavit, after the murder of Vin Chong, Ramon Lewis Arroyo Galva deleted his email address that he had since 2015, deactivated his Instagram account, which appeared to be extremely profitable for him, and changed his phone number. So investigators served a search warrant to get access to this pot of gold Instagram account history, and they uncovered just a treasure trove of posts and messages.

Quote, a review of Ramon Lewis Arroyo Galva's Instagram page revealed several videos of him showing a Glock 40 caliber with an extended magazine. The videos of him showing the Glock 40 caliber firearm with the extended magazine were posted on his page days before the murder, specifically on November 1st, 2nd, and the 12th of 2021, days before the murder of Vin-Chung. And the affidavit also included messages that were sent on this pot-of-gold account in the days after Chung was killed. Relevant in one, a person hearing about the shooting asks, damn, bro, what happened? And pot of gold, that the deleted account reportedly belonging to Arroyo Galva, responded, I can't talk about it. When I get back, I'll catch you up.

message that apparently said, I got to lay low in Georgia for a bit, fam, my bad, I'll be back December 1st. There was also this chilling message, seemingly to indicate that Arroyo Galva knew the man he was accused of killing, quote, I feel so sorry that happened, he was my homie. Now, one counterargument can be, I just knew who he was, doesn't mean I was involved. Anyway, it took a while for the digital technicians to be able to get into the phone that they had confiscated from Arroyo Galva after that traffic stop because it was password protected. This is according to the arrest affidavit, but when they did, they discovered a message on telegram that read,

phone number changed, Dear Pot, your phone number was successfully changed, and it provided both the old number and the new one, so allegedly, again, he changed his phone number the day after the killing. But using that old phone number, investigators were able to use GPS to determine that Arroyo Galva was indeed at 850 Cortland Street at the time of Chung's killing. The affidavit gave this synopsis, quote, in summary, the search warrant results for Ramon Arroyo Galva's Instagram account revealed

that he was in possession of a 40 caliber Glock firearm, was involved in a fight the day before the homicide, and even knew about the cannabis pop-up party at 850 Cortland Street on November 17th, 2021. Additionally, before the homicide, Ramon Arroyo Galva wrote that his little... were going to terrorize some bleep. And then after the homicide, he wrote that he had to go to Georgia to lay low because he got himself into trouble. You go to the summer of 2023. Royal Galva was officially arrested on first-degree murder. and in a tweet, the Orange County Sheriff's Office wrote,

detectives worked diligently to identify the suspect in this case. It's a reminder that they never stopped pursuing justice for those who are murdered in Orange County. And right now, Oroa Galva is still behind bars awaiting trial. That's the criminal side. This now brings us to Morgan and Morgan. This brings us to the civil side. And this is so interesting because even before detectives

had publicly announced who their suspect was in Chung's killing, his adult daughter filed a civil lawsuit against the owner of the building, family Holdings LLC in 2022. And then you had an amended complaint that later added on the move fitness LLC as a co-defendant. Now it's a little confusing, but basically AK family holdings own the building and then rented out all the units on the first floor to on the move fitness, also referred to as OTP in court filings. And then OTM had rented out one D for all these kinds of different events. And that is where Vinh Chung died. So the crux of the lawsuit was that it was

the responsibility of the buildings, owners, and management to make sure that it was safe, that anything going on at the premises was on the up and up, that there was security put in place, that they should know what was happening, that they needed to make sure members of the public coming on site were safe. You're talking about negligent security. And in fact, here's how a court filing lays out each defendant's involvement. Quote, decedent was killed on the premises, commercial building owned by defendant AK. The portion of the premises in which the was injured was Unit 1D. Unit 1D had been leased to defendant O.T.m. Decedent was injured on a portion of the premises owned by AK, which had been leased to OTP.

However, while the seatant was injured in Unit 1D, the shooter fired the shot while standing in a vestibule. The vestibule is considered a common area under the lease. Remember that. Common area. We're going to talk about that again. Now, the principle for AK is referred to in this filing as Mr. Kata. And the principle for OTA. is referred to as Mr. Pierre. Let's go through this. Quote, Mr. Pierre permitted events such as birthday parties, aerobics, dance, salsa, hip-hop classes, and posing classes for bodybuilding in Unit 1D. He received payment for all these events. Mr. Cata was never present for these events, and it is unclear if Mr. Cata knew of these events. But at the time of the shooting and

the decedent's death, Unit 1D was being used to host a pop-up marijuana party. The purpose of this pop-up party was to engage in the unregulated sale of marijuana and solicit. Saib and Mushrooms. Defendant O.T.M. permitted these parties and received payment for allowing the use of Unit 1D. Similar parties had been held three prior times. The testimony at trial was that Mr. Pierre never informed Mr. Cata of these parties because he, quote, didn't think it was important. So after a lot of back and forth between everyone's attorneys and a jury trial, Vin Chung's estate was awarded $11 million in January of 2025, with AK Family Holdings found to be 20% and on the move fitness, 80% responsible.

However, there was a twist. Months after that verdict came down, there was an amended final judgment that was entered, saying that it was actually OTM that was fully responsible for the $11 million and that AK Family Holdings, they basically owe nothing. Chung's estate has appealed, asking that the original judgment be reinstated,

and that is where we find ourselves right now. All right, so to help me sort through all of this, and there is a lot to sort through. I want to welcome on a special guest, Morgan and Morgan's attorney, Verun Ramner Rhine, to the studio. Varroon, thank you so much for taking the time. Appreciate it, you coming in. Let's start here.

How did Morgan and Morgan get involved in this case? And what was the role that it played in the lawsuit? Right, thanks, Jesse. So Morgan and Morgan got involved in this case when the decedent, Mr. Chung, passed away. He had a close family member, a cousin who was friends with Dan Morgan of our firm. Friend of the sidebar. We know him well, yeah. Exactly.

So they were friends. And his cousin called Dan. He said, hey, this happened to my cousin, Vin. He was killed at an event. Is this something that your firm could help with? And Dan put me in touch with the family. And I said, absolutely, we could help with it. And that's how we get involved.

Did you immediately suspect that these property owners might be liable for something? Yeah, we did. When we pulled up the property where the incident occurred, we found out that it was a commercial office building. And when we found out what event was being hosted, their pop-up marijuana party, you wouldn't typically associate that with a commercial office property. And so we started to put two and two together,

and we figured that we had an owner that was probably absentee and allowing tenants to do things on the property that he should not have allowed them to do. What's their responsibility? That's a good question, right? I mean, if you rent a property out, like, do you have to continue to monitor what they do? What's the responsibility? All right. So in Florida, the law is with respect to premises liability.

A premises owner has a responsibility to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. They have to correct or warn about dangerous conditions that they know about or should know about through the exercise of reasonable care. And then when you come to this subsect that is negligent security law, a landowner has an obligation to their guest and invitees onto the property to protect against foreseeable criminal acts by third parties that they know about or should know about. So the whole question becomes foreseeability.

So talk to us about this trial. You were part of the trial? Absolutely. Okay, so why did the jury decide the way they did, kind of splitting responsibility in a way, but ultimately, you know, siding with you guys? Right. So, you know, what I think the jury did is they looked at everything. And what we had, Jesse, was you had a property owner. You had a guy who had IT experience. He purchased a commercial property. He saw it as an investment. He had absolutely no experience with commercial property. He purchased it as an tool for investment income. He took no steps to avail himself of what the standards were for a person who owns commercial property. He hired a company to find him tenants. When he purchased the property, he had a large mortgage on it, so he was leveraged. He had to have to meet his monthly mortgage obligations so he needed tenants who were paying him rent he hired a

company to find him tenants once he had the tenants in place he was collecting rent and he turned a blind eye to security on the property he never did an audit of the property you know he never contacted the company for instance that he used to find tenants that company offered commercial property management services he never availed himself of that he never took any steps whatsoever to walk the property to contact local law enforcement to find out what the uh security requirements would be for a property like that. And then why in the end was it reversed where you had O.T.M. Was fully responsible for the judgment and not AK Family Holdings?

Yeah, so not to get too much into the law, but there is some case law that talks about nuances between property owners and tenants. And so in this case, AK Family Holdings was the property owner. Under Florida law, they have a non-delegable duty. The other defendant was the gym on the move fitness, and they were the tenant. And what happened in our case is the gym, the owner, of the gym was subletting the gym for various purposes. So we found out that he would sublet the gym for salsa parties.

He even had a wrestling event posted there, and then he would host these marijuana pop-up parties just to generate more income. Our client was in the leased space where the gym is. The shooting occurred in a common area that was under the exclusive control of the property owner. The bullet penetrated the window leading into the gym and unfortunately hit our client.

hit our client. To answer your question though, there's some law in Florida that talks about responsibility of a tenant if they're not in control of a common area of a property. That issue is still being worked out in the courts though, as we feel that we've got a strong position as to why both entities are responsible. What was the defense? I mean, was it that it wasn't a common area? Were they blaming one another? What was the defense that you saw? Yeah, the defense was this wasn't foreseeable. There was no way that they would have known to anticipate one that a tenant. So the property owner said, look, I rent this out to a guy who operates a gym. That's what he tells me he does. I don't think he's doing anything else. I don't know he's doing salsa parties. I don't know that

he's hosting pop-up marijuana parties. Yeah, it's reasonable. But the problem was the owner never took any steps to do inspections of the property. Had he done so, he would have seen that the space was being used for more than just a gym. And so for the owner of the property, the defense was this wasn't foreseeable. And for the gym owner, they really had no defense except to say, we just didn't think this would happen. We knew that we probably should not have rented it out to this group of individuals that were hosting this event, but we didn't have any reason to believe that there would be a shooting. $11 million. How did it get to $11 million? I mean, that's a big win.

You had a 34-year-old who was killed, who left behind two children, left behind a family. You know, the losses are well beyond $11 million. You know, we asked for more. The jury, that's what they returned. But in this case, I mean, you had a 34-year-old father left behind at the time, a daughter who was 17, a son who was 14, and you ask, well, how do you get to 11 million. It's the testimony of the children. Having a 14-year-old who at the time of trial was 18 years old, he had just finished high school, the daughter was in her early 20s. But having them talk about the impact of not having a dad around anymore for graduations, the daughter is going to get married shortly, not having a father who's there to walk her down the aisle. You know, those are the

types of damages that I think connected with the jury. No. What's that worth? A hundred percent. You don't know what the worth. I mean, it's hard. The 11 million, how is the family doing right And has that been paid over or is that going to be a process? The 11 million has not been paid. Okay. We're still working through the court process. There will likely be an appeal taken depending on what the decision is made in the circuit court. The family, how are they coping?

You know, they're doing the best they can. These are admirable children, all of the family members, extended family members, et cetera. But they're doing the best they can. Yeah. And it forced them, a 14-year-old, in particular, his son. His testimony at trial was, you know, this wasn't just my dad. He was my friend. Right? And so it forced him to grow up a lot faster, both him and his sister, to grow up a lot faster than otherwise.

You know, it's funny, you say in the law foreseeability, I'm a lawyer too, right, foreseeability. For Mr. Chung, there was probably never could imagine that something like that would happen. His family probably never could imagine like something like that would happen. It's such a horrible, horrible case. You mentioned the appeal, right? So there's an appeal to get it back to that original split. So after the verdict, there were post-trial motions that were filed by the defendant's. One of the post-trial motions essentially requested a new trial, which was granted at the trial court level.

We are currently, there are motions at our side, you know, we have filed against that, that are playing themselves out. Once we have rulings on the motions that are pending in the circuit court, then we'll determine whether or not there will be an appeal. It's interesting when you have a case, a civil case that is connected to a criminal investigation. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the Orange County deputies, they were still doing their investigation when this lawsuit was filed and Arroyo Galva hadn't been arrested yet, right? I mean, how did that affect it? So it didn't affect our case, but you are right. The criminal investigation was still underway, actively underway as we were litigating our case. Shortly before trial, Mr. Arroyo Galva was apprehended.

in Georgia. But it really has no effect, Jesse. You would think it would, but it doesn't, because in the criminal department, the state attorney in the state of Florida, they're prosecuting this individual for what he did, the criminal act. In our setting, it's a civil arena, and we're not prosecuting Mr. Roya Galva. Yes, certainly he is responsible. He's the one who chose to fire this bullet. Our position is a little bit different. It's more nuanced. What we're saying is this property owner allowed for this to happen, and he allowed for it to happen because he failed to have any security measures on site. In Orange County, to give you an example, the Orange County Sheriff's Department will come out and give any commercial property owner a free at no

cost at all audit. They will come out, they'll walk the property with the owner and an agent of the owner and they will give the owner a report telling you what your safety obligations are. This particular property owner did not even know that that was an option that was available to him. And so in our case, when we are proceeding against the property owner and the tenant, we're not so much saying that you're responsible for pulling the trigger on the gun that actually led to the death, we're saying you're responsible for creating the circumstances that allowed it to happen. It's separate. It's different. In other words, you don't believe the circumstances of your case really are going to play into the criminal trial at all. There's a reason why a shooting like this

wouldn't happen in the middle of Times Square, New York, right? Because there's security presence there. There are people there. There's a reason why it happens at a office building that's got dim lighting, inadequate security, no barriers to entry for anyone, meaning anyone can access the property. There was something else I wanted to mention to you. You don't always get it, but sometimes you get jury questions that come up during deliberations. I always think it's interesting, kind of gives an insight into what the jury may be thinking. So there was one question that said, can the award amount be appealed? What did that tell you about the mindset of the jury? It told us, when we got that question, it was late at night. We got this verdict, I think, around

11 o'clock at night. This was around 10 o'clock. So it told us that they had passed the issue of liability and now they were considering damages. So we were optimistic, meaning if they were going to rule against our clients, they wouldn't be asking a question about damages. And then, you know, the issue is, well, how much are they going to award? We asked for more than 11 million. And our thought is different jurors, they come in with different experiences. People hear lots of things about, well, you've got runaway juries and verdicts that are large and then they may be reduced. after the fact and so I think that was playing in the back of their mind well hey if we award the amount that's being asked for is that something that'll

stand or will a court or will some other body come and reduce that amount do you think at this point in time that the family is going to see the 11 million dollars I do I'm optimistic we will make sure of it we're not going to stop until they do it's it's the right thing a jury of their peers jury of their peers jury of their peers decided that that's what they were entitled to so we talk about Morgan Morgan all the time On Saibar, this is one of those cases that, you know, obviously I think it's showing the work of Morgan and Morgan in action, but also it's such a tragedy. There's such a human element to this.

I feel terrible for Mr. Chung's family. So our thoughts, our prayers are with them. We'll continue to follow it, see how it progresses. But Veruna Ramneran, thank you so much for coming in and explaining a little bit more to us. Really appreciate it. Thank you for having me, Jesse. And the Chung family thanks you as well. You got it. And that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar everybody thank you so much for joining us and as always please subscribe on youtube apple podcast spotify wherever you should get your podcast you can follow me on ex or instagram i'm jesse weber i'll speak to you next time