Jimmy Higgins
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- Joined
- Jan 31, 2001
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Written from the Headlines
Jaylan Gray’s mother died two years ago of a blood disorder, leaving him alone in their Texas house with his little brother, then 10.
“Before she died, she told me not to sell the house,” said Gray, 22, whose stepfather had died several years earlier. “My mom and my stepdad had paid it off and she wanted us to live in it.”
Then, last year, disaster struck at their three-bedroom house near Houston, when the pipes burst in the massive winter storm that left millions of Texans without power for days. The house was quickly flooded from the attic, soaking and ruining ceilings, walls and floors.
Gray hired a contractor to make repairs, but the contractor punched holes in walls throughout the house, then disappeared with about $20,000, he said. Gray didn’t have the resources to pursue the matter.
He filed a police report, but authorities were unable to find the contractor. “I couldn’t keep up with it — it was just too much,” Gray said about the house, which is in Katy. “I couldn’t afford to make the repairs.” Overwhelmed, Gray and his brother, Julian Nicholson, moved across town to live with their grandmother. Gray, who had been enrolled in college, stopped taking classes and got a job at a car inspection company to help pay the bills and raise his brother. “Julian became my priority,” Gray said of his brother, who is 12 now and entering seventh grade. “I promised my mom that I’d look after him and the house, so I dropped out of college.”
Then in the spring, Kevin and Michelle Duty, who volunteer with the community nonprofit Katy Responds — which helps rebuild homes after natural disasters — heard from a friend about the brothers’ situation. “It was just heartbreaking to find out what these two had been through,” said Kevin Duty, 56. “For Jaylan to have to take on that much at such a young age was unimaginable.”
Volunteers repaired the roof, hauled away ruined furniture and flooring, put up new drywall, and rewired, plumbed and painted the entire house.
With the home restored, a sense of angry resentment still remained. "While helping provide them with the home they needed," noted Pauline Mabry, 61, who volunteered with some of the work, "I'd be lying if I said a sense of fiery rage didn't exist in my gut to hunt down the contractors that robbed that family."
A private detective was contacted and worked for no cost to find the contractor. After two weeks, they got an address and the community traveled in a caravan to "make things right". After arriving, what can only be called the most horrific acts of pure justice took place. "They'll never find the body," noted Kevin Duty. "I mean, what's left of it."
"It is easier to sleep at night," reflected Jaylan Gray. "I won't lie, it is easier."
Jaylan Gray’s mother died two years ago of a blood disorder, leaving him alone in their Texas house with his little brother, then 10.
“Before she died, she told me not to sell the house,” said Gray, 22, whose stepfather had died several years earlier. “My mom and my stepdad had paid it off and she wanted us to live in it.”
Then, last year, disaster struck at their three-bedroom house near Houston, when the pipes burst in the massive winter storm that left millions of Texans without power for days. The house was quickly flooded from the attic, soaking and ruining ceilings, walls and floors.
Gray hired a contractor to make repairs, but the contractor punched holes in walls throughout the house, then disappeared with about $20,000, he said. Gray didn’t have the resources to pursue the matter.
He filed a police report, but authorities were unable to find the contractor. “I couldn’t keep up with it — it was just too much,” Gray said about the house, which is in Katy. “I couldn’t afford to make the repairs.” Overwhelmed, Gray and his brother, Julian Nicholson, moved across town to live with their grandmother. Gray, who had been enrolled in college, stopped taking classes and got a job at a car inspection company to help pay the bills and raise his brother. “Julian became my priority,” Gray said of his brother, who is 12 now and entering seventh grade. “I promised my mom that I’d look after him and the house, so I dropped out of college.”
Then in the spring, Kevin and Michelle Duty, who volunteer with the community nonprofit Katy Responds — which helps rebuild homes after natural disasters — heard from a friend about the brothers’ situation. “It was just heartbreaking to find out what these two had been through,” said Kevin Duty, 56. “For Jaylan to have to take on that much at such a young age was unimaginable.”
Volunteers repaired the roof, hauled away ruined furniture and flooring, put up new drywall, and rewired, plumbed and painted the entire house.
With the home restored, a sense of angry resentment still remained. "While helping provide them with the home they needed," noted Pauline Mabry, 61, who volunteered with some of the work, "I'd be lying if I said a sense of fiery rage didn't exist in my gut to hunt down the contractors that robbed that family."
A private detective was contacted and worked for no cost to find the contractor. After two weeks, they got an address and the community traveled in a caravan to "make things right". After arriving, what can only be called the most horrific acts of pure justice took place. "They'll never find the body," noted Kevin Duty. "I mean, what's left of it."
"It is easier to sleep at night," reflected Jaylan Gray. "I won't lie, it is easier."