(Carrollton, GA) This week the family of Anna Jones spoke out to express their grief and shed light on the complex emotions that have engulfed them since the tragic loss of their beloved daughter.

The recent guilty plea and sentencing of her murderer, former University of West Georgia professor Richard Sigman, has brought a mix of relief and despair to her loved ones. They find solace in the fact that they are spared the ordeal of a trial and that the man responsible has accepted accountability for his heinous act.

However, this plea deal, which carries the possibility of an early release after 30 years, has left the family grappling with the reality of their perpetual despair. Attorneys Jim Myers and Chuck Clay represent Anna’s family. Attorney Jim Myers says the fight for justice is not over.

Clay Taulbee Myers has filed a civil lawsuit against the gunman who fired the fatal shots and the owner of a local bar where Sigman had threatened another patron with a gun – the same gun he used a short time later to murder Anna. Myers says the bar and its owners contributed to the circumstances that led to Anna’s death and had an opportunity to prevent it, and they should be held accountable.

The lawsuit claims “Sigman was a belligerent drunk who liked to pick fights with others” and that the bar staff failed to notify the police, and failed to take reasonable security measures to handle Sigman despite knowing he was “armed, dangerous, agitated and intoxicated.”