University and police responsible for Virginia Tech deaths The parents of Erin Peterson, 18, and Julia Pryde, 23, who were both killed in the 2007 killings, wept as the jury in the civil trial they had brought agreed that the state was liable for their deaths and awarded each family $4 million (£2.6 million). During a week-long trial at Montgomery County Circuit Court in Christiansberg, Virginia, the state argued that police and officials had reasonably assumed that the first shooting was a domestic incident, and that there was no threat to the wider student body. They said there was no way of predicting the "unprecedented" killing spree. The jury took just three-and-a-half hours to find the state guilty of negligence. Afterwards, Peterson's mother Celeste said: "Today we got what we wanted. The truth is out there, and that's all we ever wanted. We came here for the truth. Circuit Judge William Alexander said it had been the most difficult case he had ever been part of. "My heart goes out to all of you," he said to the families of victims. During the trial, the family's attorney asked the university's president, Charles W. Steger, to apologise for his actions, but he was stopped from doing so by the state's lawyer. Robert Hall, the parents' attorney, said: "The university's contention has been all along, to quote President Steger 'We did everything we could do'. Obviously the jury didn't buy that. The jury was not told about the compensation cap.