TUF 10’s’ Zak Jensen facing wrongful death lawsuit
Suit filed by family of SAHS grad who died in Mexico Relatives of a Stillwater Area High School graduate who…
Suit filed by family of SAHS grad who died in Mexico
Relatives of a Stillwater Area High School graduate who died in Mexico under unclear circumstances say they are just looking for justice and details about his death by filing a lawsuit against those who saw him last.
Elizabeth Gunderson Koll filed the suit Thursday in Washington on behalf of her son, Josh Gunderson. The suit accuses Zachery Jensen, Jason Jones and Sterling Systems, which is owned by Jones, of negligence in Josh Gunderson’s death.
“I’m speaking for my son,” Elizabeth Gunderson Koll said. “I just don’t know how these people can live with themselves and go on with their lives and not speak to us.
Gunderson died during a March trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with Jensen and Ashley Jones. Jensen, who is now appearing on SpikeTV’s ‘The Ultimate Fighter,” was working for the Jones family as a bodyguard.
Ashley Jones has been subpoenaed to give a deposition.
Mexican authorities concluded that Gunderson slipped and hit his head. Family spokesman Brian Gunderson, Josh’s uncle, said in March that preliminary evidence from an independent autopsy that the family commissioned also indicated that the death was an accident.
But by mid-April, family members were talking about their frustrations over not hearing what happened from Jensen or Ashley Jones. Authorities interviewed Jensen after the incident and released him, but Jones left the country and has not spoken with any law enforcement agencies or the Gunderson family.
Since that time, the family has received all the investigation documents from Mexican authorities and had time to translate them. Those documents suggest the death wasn’t an accident, said lawyer John D. Magnuson Magnuson, who later added that he was unhappy with how the Mexican investigators handled the death.
“We’re kind of stuck with what we’re stuck with in that respect,” he said.
Eric Hawkins, Ashley Jones’ lawyer, declined to comment on her behalf. Jason Jones also declined to comment. Jensen could not be reached for comment.
What happened
A statement included with the court documents offers the first accounts of what happened prior to Gunderson’s death.
Concierge Ma de Lourdes Becerra Perez said she got involved when she heard a woman talking loudly on the phone, saying “There is nothing I can do, he is not breathing.” She then saw Jensen run down the stairs in a bloody white shirt.
Ashley Jones was trying to close her suitcase and talking on her cell phone when Perez arrived in the room. She said, “I’m going to the airport now,” and Jensen added that “Her parents are trying to get a flight to go back home,” Perez said.
When Perez asked what happened, Jensen told her he woke up to Jones’ screaming, “Get off of me.” He said he got up and saw Josh on top of her and attacking her. Jensen told Perez he took Gunderson away from her but had to defend himself when Gunderson turned on him.
Gunderson walked toward the bathroom and Jensen went to console Jones, Perez recalled Jensen saying. They then heard a “strong noise” in the bathroom. Jensen walked into the bathroom and found Gunderson.
Perez said his head was on the edge of the shower and his right leg was elevated and in the toilet when she saw him.
Jensen began crying and saying the he just defended himself, Perez recalled. He then said that he tried to give him mouth to mouth and CPR.
Perez said she had to tell the bell boy to stop Jones when she saw her walking fast toward the lobby. She later disappeared after she allegedly told a security employee that she had to make a phone call.
Jensen remained in the room “pulling his hair and crying,” said Perez, who recalled him saying, “He shouldn’t be with her … He was liking her but she didn’t.”
Brian Gunderson cautioned against believing the story and noted so far Jensen is the only one who has provided any account of what happened. He added that he heard through Ashley Jones’ lawyer that Jensen’s account of the scene wasn’t exactly what happened – although he said her lawyer phrased the explanation as a hypothetical because it wasn’t coming from his client.
“We have nothing to hide,” Gunderson said. “We’re providing the information to you. This is what we know, and we’re being forthright with that.”
Elizabeth Gunderson Koll added that her son was too small to be a fighter. She also described how a family met him at Senor Frogs during the trip. Jensen’s statement to Mexican police, which echoed his comments to Perez, said Gunderson had had too much to drink at that point. But this family told Gunderson that he was a gentleman who’d asked the father for permission to dance with his daughter.
“I know my kid,” she said. “I know my kid wasn’t a fighter. What could he have done to make you want to do that to him?”
Examiner’s report
Court documents that Magnuson provided to the Gazette assert that a preliminary report from a Ramsey medical examiner and forensic pathologist found that Jensen and Gunderson struggled and that Gunderson choked on “gastric contents” and died.
The examination confirmed the original post mortem and found that Gunderson’s blood alcohol level was .12 percent.
A cover letter from the report that was included with the court documents said the truth of what happened can’t be fully determined until investigators have additional information.
But it did list possible scenarios where a healthy adult could choke to death on gastric contents, something that happens mostly when unconscious or semi-conscious.
¥ It can happen when a drunk person breathes in food while eating, but there is no evidence that Gunderson was eating.
¥ It can happen during CPR, but there was no evidence that had happened.
¥ It can happen when a drunk person passes out, vomits and is unable to move his or her head to free the airway, but the examiner found no evidence that Gunderson was passed out or unconscious just before he died.
¥ It can happen when someone is regaining consciousness after trauma, such as that from a struggle.
“If the statement from the concierge is true, it is likely Joshua experienced an altered level of consciousness due to the struggle, which led him to vomit and aspirate, and subsequently walk into the bathroom and collapse,” Forensic Pathologist Janis C. Amatuzio wrote in a letter summarizing her findings.