Widower of Slain Jogger Sues Finance Company

A Fountain Valley widower has filed a wrongful death suit against a finance company being investigated in connection with a series of violent crimes, including the slaying of the plaintiff’s wife.

In documents filed Monday--exactly a year after Jane Carver was shot to death--Albert Carver is suing Premium Commercial Services, a Huntington Beach finance company. Police are investigating whether the former president of Premium had hired a hit man who mistakenly killed the 46-year-old flight attendant when he was looking for another woman.

“This lawsuit was only brought after very lengthy deliberations by Al Carver,” said Jeoffrey L. Robinson, his attorney. “Mr. Carver is not an opportunist who revels in retribution, and this is a man who wants to get on with his life. He does realize, however, that he has a responsibility to his family, and that he has the legal civil right to file this complaint.”

Premium Commercial Services was linked to the Carver slaying in May after Leonard Owen Mundy, 42, who had ties with the finance company, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Detectives said witnesses identified Mundy as the man who shot Jane Carver as she was returning from a morning run at Mile Square Regional Park. Investigators say they believe Mundy was hired by Coleman Allen, the former president of Premium, to kill a woman who lived a mile from the Carvers. That woman and her husband apparently owed money to Premium, investigators said. (Allen has since died of a heart attack.)

Premium has been accused in the past of harming or threatening some of its clients, according to court records. It also is being investigated by Los Angeles police in connection with the death in January of Hollywood executive Barry Skolnick.

Premium’s attorney, Lawrence Nagler, declined comment Tuesday.

No monetary figure was declared in the wrongful death suit filed by Albert Carver, 49, in Orange County Superior Court.

“If our allegations are accurate and the proof conforms to that, our belief is that someone should be held responsible for this,” Robinson said.