Terril Johnson, a 77-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, drove six hours from Los Angeles this spring to see his gymnastics granddaughter graduate from San Jose State University, but a lawsuit by his family claims he died in a San Jose hotel, “effectively boiled alive” in a hot shower.
“He died the night before the graduation ceremony,” said his son Terril Johnson II of Riverside. Johnson had been “ecstatic” at the prospect of his granddaughter Trinity Johnson getting her management degree, his son said.
The elder Johnson’s grandson, Deshun Johnson, found him partially submerged and unresponsive in the bathtub of the shower at the Fairfield Inn & Suites next to Mineta San Jose International Airport on May 22, with superheated water still flowing, according to the lawsuit filed last week in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Also in attendance were Johnson’s son, daughter-in-law and three granddaughters, including Trinity, who was scheduled to graduate the next day from San Jose State, where she had spent four years on the school’s NCAA Division 1 gymnastics team.
“When family members rushed to help, the water was so dangerously hot that they were initially unable to lift him out of the tub,” the wrongful death lawsuit said. “As they struggled desperately to save him, they were forced to watch in horror as his skin peeled off his body.”
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses Marriott International, the hotel owner, of operating a water heating system that “posed a deadly hazard.”
Marriott did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the lawsuit, the shower flooded Johnson with water heated to about 135 degrees, well above the legal maximum of 120 degrees underwater. California Plumbing Code. “Exposure to water at such temperatures is known to cause third-degree burns within seconds,” the lawsuit said, without citing a source for that claim. The The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that people can suffer third-degree burns from six seconds of exposure to 140-degree water or 30 seconds of exposure to 130-degree water. Five minutes at 120 degrees can cause third-degree burns, the committee said.
The Santa Clara County coroner’s office determined that Johnson’s death was caused by “severe burns” to his neck, torso and extremities, combined with a health condition of high blood pressure. It was unclear why Johnson, 72, couldn’t escape the shower, whether his health condition played a role in his inability to get away from the hot water, or exactly how long he was in the shower before his grandson discovered him. Deshun found his grandfather “within minutes” of Johnson getting out of the shower, the lawsuit said.
Johnson had retired in August 2024 after more than two decades with the Los Angeles Metro transportation agency, where he had “very quickly become one of the top guys,” overseeing a large manufacturing plant in downtown Los Angeles as a senior lead technician, his son said.
“He was just a happy person,” he said. “He enjoyed life.”
Johnson’s encouragement and support played a major role in the successes of Trinity and her older sister Heaven Johnson, who is in her second year of law school, he said.
“He talked to the girls on the phone every day,” he said. “They were his joy in the world.”
According to San Jose State, Trinity Johnson graduated last spring with a management degree. She is now in her first year of law school at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, where her sister Heaven is in her second year, Johnson said.
The elder Johnson and his widow Linda, high school sweethearts, were married for 54 years.
The incident, the lawsuit said, left Johnson’s family members with post-traumatic stress disorder and recurring nightmares.
“I have dreams that my father really didn’t die, he was just really badly burned,” his son said. “I visit him in the hospital and he is completely covered in gauze.”
Originally published:
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