ST. LOUIS — Jason Politte and Karen Chaplin say there was one defining moment of a two-week wrongful death trial for their daughter, who was killed in 2020 when a car slammed into her outside her job: the moment one of the main plaintiffs said he didn't know their daughter's name.
“He responded, ‘Who's that? I don't even know who that is,’” Politte recalled. “You're going to go trial, and the fact he didn't know her name was very disturbing.”
They’re talking about Nesser “Jimmy” Zahriya, the CEO of California-based United Brands.
It’s a company that manufactures Whip-Its – small canisters that contain nitrous oxide to make gourmet whipped cream.
And now it’s a company that’s responsible for almost all of a $745 million verdict a St. Louis jury delivered to Politte and Chaplin earlier this month. The jury found the company almost entirely liable for the death of Marissa Politte, who was struck and killed by a man who inhaled it and passed out behind the wheel of his truck.
“We can't stop here,” Karen Chaplin. “We’ve got to get some laws changed.
“No more kids need to die because of this stuff.”
On the night Marissa Politte was killed, Geiger bought a 24-pack of Whip-Its at Coughing Cardinal in Des Peres. He’s now serving a two-year prison sentence.
“I don't know the kid, I don't like his choices that night, I don't like his decisions that night, but I hate the fact that he had such easy access to the drug that caused him to pass out that created the accident,” Jason Politte said.
Marissa Politte was 25 years old and working as a radiology nurse at the Total Access Urgent Care in Ballwin when she was killed.
“She was very positive, whatever she wanted, she went for it,” her mother said. “There is no reason why this stuff needs to be in head shops, smoke shops when it's for food purposes.
“It's nonsense. And my daughter had to die for that, because they're just worried about their money.”
One Whip-It makes 16 oz of whipped cream.
“You don't sell over a million of them in a three-year period in one location for whipped cream,” Politte said.
Federal law does not prohibit places like Coughing Cardinal from selling Whip-Its. It prohibits anyone from selling them for the purpose of inhalation.
Attorneys for United Brands argued in court that Geiger abused their product, which has ample warnings on its box about the potential side effects of being inhaled. Those include seizures, loss of consciousness and even death.
Coughing Cardinal’s attorney argued that it cannot parent how its customers use the products it sells.
“I think the jury saw right through it,” said Johnny Simon, attorney for Chaplin and Politte. “It can kill people, it can addict people, and that harms people.
“So making a decision to sell it as an inhalant is choosing to poison people and to make money doing it.”
In 2022, New York legislators passed a law that would fine businesses selling Whip-Its to individuals under the age of 21 anywhere from $250 to $500 for subsequent violations.
The Dutch government banned the use of nitrous oxide altogether at the start of this year, hoping to reduce the number of traffic accidents connected to the drug, according to the BBC. The ban makes it illegal to buy, sell or own the gas, but it can be used for medical purposes and in the food industry.
In 2020, the National Institute on Drug Abuse published a study, which determined 40% of tenth graders and 26% of eighth graders were considered to be at risk of using the drug consistently.
Marissa Politte’s parents hope lawmakers here hear about the verdict and strengthen laws to ban places like smoke shops and head shops from selling it outright.
Just four days before the jury delivered its verdict in this case, United Brands declared bankruptcy, so it's unclear how that will impact how much money Marissa Politte's parents get.
“It was never about the money,” Jason Politte said about the family’s decision to file the lawsuit. “It was about making that statement, opening up people's eyes, opening up to other industries because United Brands is not the only distributor around, making their insurance companies open their eyes to see what's going on with these shops and why they're selling it.
“They have a lot of people still hiding behind that. They think it's just for a food propellant for making whipped cream…
"A lot of people don't know what it is, don't know what it's used for, and it needs to have light shed on it. And that's what we wanted to do, to shine a light.”
And to make sure everyone they believe is responsible for their daughter's death knows her name.