GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A former Gaston County businessman serving a decades-long prison sentence for killing two family members is now faces a civil lawsuit related to property damages he caused that day.
According to our partners at the Gaston Gazette, General Casualty, a Wisconsin-based insurance company, is seeking $165,425 from Roger Self for property damages caused to the Surf & Turf Lodge on May 20, 2018.
General Casualty insured the restaurant at the time.
Self killed his daughter, Katelyn Self -- a corporal with the Gaston County Sheriff’s Office -- and his daughter-in-law, Amanda Self -- an emergency room nursing supervisor at CaroMont Regional Medical Center -- on that day by driving his Jeep SUV into the restaurant on purpose. He also injured several family members in the incident.
Self, who will turn 66 on Sunday while an inmate at Raleigh’s maximum security Central Prison, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the case.
Friends and family said Self suffered from mental health issues at the time of the crash.
While Self did not try to use his mental health condition as a defense in the case, he did raise the issue during a week-long sentencing hearing during which he asked a judge to give him a lesser punishment of just 12 years in prison.
Superior Court Judge Athena Brooks sentenced Self in April to a minimum of 38 years and a maximum of 48 years in prison. Self could have received a maximum sentence of about 70 years.
”I’m going to die in prison,” Self told the court after his sentencing. “But then I’ll be free because of Christ and his love for all of us.”
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The civil lawsuit notes “Mr. Self’s mental health issues” may have contributed to the way he operated his vehicle that day. But the lawsuit also aims to hold Self accountable.
”Surf and Turf suffered significant financial damages as a result of Mr. Self’s collision with its restaurant,” states the lawsuit filed in Gaston County Superior Court in May 2021. ”Mr. Self had a duty to act reasonably as an operator of a motor vehicle. Mr. Self breached his duty by crashing this vehicle in the Surf and Turf Lodge.”
The lawsuit lists specific losses the restaurant received, from $62,419 for building repairs, to $34,343 in business interuption to $2,147 for food loss. The final figure comes to $165,425.
Self has not responded to the lawsuit.
(WATCH: Man who drove Jeep into restaurant, killing 2 family members sentenced to 46-56 years)
Self was a successful owner of a private investigations company at the time of the incident, and had worked decades ago for the Gastonia Police Department. His son, Josh Self, the husband of Amanda Self and father of their two children, who was also seriously injured in the incident, remains a member of the Gaston County Police Department.
Self also was a leader at Venture Church in Dallas. Self and his family had attended Sunday morning services at Venture Church before the incident at the restaurant.
Family and friends would decide to eat together after worship services at the Surf & Turf Lodge.
Roger Self, his family members and extended family members would all be seated together at the restaurant. Wait staff would serve drinks and salads, and as those at the table waited for their entrees, Self excused himself and went outside. He went to his SUV, started the vehicle and then drove it up a handicap ramp and through the building where his family sat awaiting Sunday dinner.
Self’s surviving daughter, Taylor Potter, tried to talk to Roger Self as he sat behind the wheel of his SUV, engine still running, inside the walls of the restaurant.
”He kept saying, ‘I’m so evil. I’m so evil,’” Potter said in the sentencing hearing.
Self’s family and friends had been concerned over his mental health for months as he sank deeper into a depression, according to court testimony and earlier interviews. At one point, Self voluntarily handed over all of the guns in his home to his son, telling him he didn’t want to have them around, according to court testimony.
But on the day before Self killed his family members he traveled to Shooter’s Express and bought a handgun with the intention of killing himself, he testified.
Self testified he felt as if God had forgotten about him. He sought help from friends, spiritual advisers and several doctors before killing his family members. He testified he just kept getting worse no matter what medications he took.
He also testified he did not follow the advice of his late daughter-in-law, the nurse, who said he should voluntarily commit himself to a psychiatric ward to get the help he needed.
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