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Jury awards $2.75M to family in Tucson hotel pool drowning

A 35-year-old mother of two drowned within minutes of getting into the pool in March 2017.
Gavel in courtroom. (Photo: Thinkstock)

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A jury has awarded $2.75 million in damages to the family of a Chinese woman who drowned in a Tucson hotel swimming pool more than two years ago.

Witnesses say Mei Hu, a 35-year-old mother of two from Suzhou, drowned within minutes of getting into the pool in March 2017.

Hu couldn't swim and a lawsuit claimed her death was caused by an overly steep slope in the pool floor, poor lighting and a lack of safety equipment like a rope to show where the deep water began.

Following a 10-day trial, jurors found the victim and the hotel equally responsible and halved the initial $5.5 million verdict.

That's nearly triple the $1 million Hu's family was willing to settle for last year in a proposal the hotel's ex-owner rejected.

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