The biggest eyesore in Northeast Jackson may not be an eyesore much longer if Jackson Environmental Court Judge Jeff Reynolds has his way.
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| 5114 Old Canton Road in 2023 |
The house has been quite the problem property in Northeast Jackson for quite some time. Situated by Jackson Academy and Parham Bridges Park, it has been the scene of shootouts, squatters, and other nefarious activity.
Bryan and Lucille Campbell owned the home and the adjacent one until they passed away in their old age in 2006. Their son inherited the two properties and sold them. Rene Verhoeven bought them in 2017. Mr. Verhoeven lives in Belgium.
JJ reported on April 29, 2021 three shootouts took place on the same day. Earlier post. The tenants were evicted and the house sat vacant in a state of neglect (as seen in the picture above). Indeed, the yard got so bad Jackson stalwart Locke Ward used a $300 donation to hire a crew to take care of the yard.
May 2024 rolled around and a truck showed up one Friday night. Several people spent the weekend cleaning out the house and putting the contents on the street. A week later, some tenants moved in but they were not exactly tenants. As it turned out, they paid rent but to a phony realtor out of state.
To say the residents were of the hood rat variety is an insult to hood rats. Junked cars populated the property. Tires piled up on the backside of the house. Pit bulls ran loose - when they weren't caged up outside up to eight hours a day. People came and went at all hours. The residents, often didn't wear shirts. Scantily clad young women appeared on a regular basis. A stripper pole was installed.
Pictures posted below show the squalor of the squatters.
No power? No problem. They took an Entergy box from another house and rigged it up to the power line. Yup, they hot-wired power. Entery disconnected the electricity all but within a day, the squatters were back to bootlegging electricity. When JXN Water turned off the water, the squatters proceeded to turn the water back on. The cat and mouse game with JXN Water continued until JXN Water took more preventative measures. However, the squatters did cut the grass every so often in an effort to be good neighbors.
No management company supervised the property. The elderly owner remained in Belgium, sick with cancer.
The squatters squatted away until May 2025. Mr. Verhoeven rehired Trey Guerieri to manage the property after neighbors notified him of the squatters. Mr. Guerieri initiated eviction proceedings in early 2025 but eviction did not take place until May. The constable notified the squatters they had 72 hours to leave the premises. They didn't leave so an employee arrived with two JPD officers later in the week and evicted them.
The junk inside the house completely filled a dumpster. The stripper pole was removed and placed inside the dumpster as well.
The squatters were gone but problems remained. Within a few months, someone stole the compressor and rest of the HVAC system. Windows were busted out and vagrants rummaged through the house. The front door and windows were left open for three weeks in July. Naturally vagrants roamed through what could no longer be called a house. Kroger shopping carts appeared on the property (There were half a dozen shopping carts on property at eviction).
5114 Old Canton Road became the subject of much discussion on social media sites such as Nextdoor and Facebook. After receiving numerous complaints, code enforcement investigated and promptly issued citations to Mr. Geurieri and his client.
The case was brought before Judge Reynolds Tuesday. Neighbors testified on how the property affected them. One neighbor, an architect, described in haunting detail how he and his family were huddled on the floor of their home during the shootouts. He said the pit bulls chased him and his kids down the street. Judge Reynolds shook his head as the soft-spoken neighbor spoke. Another neighbor pointed out no action had been taken to repair the home since the eviction seven months ago. Workers finally appeared - on the day of the hearing.
Mr. Guerieri said he was rehabbing the property. However, he said he had not spoken to the owner in some time and didn't know if he was alive. However, the owner had given him power of attorney to act on his behalf where the property was concerned. The defendant said it would cost at least $30,000 to rehabilitate the house. He said he would also have to install an HVAC system. Through it all, Mr. Guerieri was respectful of the Court and quite amenable to its sentence.
Prosecutor Chandra Gayten entered the pictures (some are posted below) into evidence. Judge Reynolds reviewed them before pronouncing judgment.
The Court ordered Mr. Guerieri to completely renovate the property within 120 days. A status conference will be held in 60 days. Code enforcement will be allowed to conduct walk-through inspections of the property. He reminded the defendant he was the judge who ordered the demolition of Hotel O, Briarwood 1, and other Jackson eyesores. He said he would order the demolition of the house on 5114 Old Canton Road if it was not rehabbed within 120 days.
Judge Rynolds sentenced Mr. Guerieri to 30 days in jail but suspended the sentence. The judge said the sentence would be motivation for compliance with his order.
53 comments:
This is what happens when “these type people” move into your neighborhood. This is why we fight it so hard. NE JXN ALL OVER is being challenged.
No quite sure I understand the phony rent deal? Who was collecting the rent payments that were being made?
How could JPD not have intervened in this situation? Complete negligence.
We need someone to step up and redevelop Old Canton badly. Demolish all of the houses that are on the main road and level those shitty shopping centers.
Officer did stop by several times. Were able to show lease.
How do you sentence a property manager (suspended sentence or not) who’s cooperating to jail time? Considering he doesn’t even know if the owner is alive. Manager must be in a position to take ownership (probably best outcome). Otherwise the first wind I got of any kind of sentencing I would promptly become the “former property manager”.
Locke Ward, if you're reading this, thank you for being a real-life hero.
Can the honorable Judge Reynolds order some other demolitions for us? Man that would be fun! Can we start with the abandoned boarded up graffitied Waffle House that greets you as you get off the interstate onto Northside Dr? How about the rest of "Hotel OYO"? Then we could move on to Fondren Taste?? Judge Reynolds, please make these Christmas wishes come true!!
Condemn it. Level it. Sell for costs. Developer will build duplex on site.
Get out now! While you can!
Anyone want to explain why the property manager is the subject of the complaint and received a sentence? Whether he has power of attorney or not, it isn't his property.
What is amazing is that it hasn't burned down. Bring in a D5 Cat.
This doesn't happen in Madison. Ever.
2:32, apparently it’s fairly common. A shyster sees a property with an absentee owner, the shyster pretends to own the property and rents it out. Might collect a month’s rent, might luck out and collect for many months.
@3:29 actually Madison occasionally has issues.
https://www.wlbt.com/2019/06/01/madison-home-condemned-after-being-taken-over-by-feral-cats/
Additional earlier post on this property:
https://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2023/08/scumlords-slug-it-out-in-court.html
All of Jackson is a eyesore
That’s why I don’t live in jackson
Jackson is one big Sanford and son.
JPD do there job???????
Little Detroit
Unique interior trim colors.
" The defendant said it would cost at least $30,000 to rehabilitate the house"
A smart person would be sure to have a contingency of at least tree fiddy to cover the likely surprises awaiting.
The only thing squatter like this understand is force.
Driving through some of Detroit's abandoned and burned out areas on the north central section of Detroit. 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKEx0N0DCY
Jackson is not as bad as Detroit *was*. Detroit has eliminated some crazy amount of their blight, like 80%. They are having a renaissance. And that is coming to Jackson in the next decade.
$30k? Not after seeing those pictures.
Most of 39211 is not an eye sore.
@4:28- how dare you point out that Madison THE CITY has a problem. Don’t you know that THE CITY is utopia, no crime, no homeless, Evian water running through the water pipes, total bliss! Stating otherwise is fighting words to those that live there.
Madison has fine houses and 2 billion in notes payable.
@4:28 PM - That was in 2019 and resolved pretty quickly. So that's one in a row.
The story of the problematic house in Madison is 6.5 years old. I'd bet serious money that the problem has been resolved. Mary won't let issues drag out. Chokwe welcomed such issues.
This house must have aluminum wire and galvanized pipe otherwise the scrappers would have gotten it all with lots more holes in the walls.
6:11 I heard that years ago!
Welcomed? Lumumba encouraged problems.
From Thug renters to squatter thieves to Trey Guerreri,
Fleas - Rats - Snakes all find a way to feed off of each other!
We had squatters next to our home in Pearl and suffered everyday because the city/police did nothing but stir up problems and hate me and my family for begging them to do their jobs and evict the squatters out of a home they broke into and started living out of.
Yes, well...Eastover, CCJ, Woodland Hills, Fondren and Belhaven are still quite lovely and are convenient to hospitals shopping and were well built. And I can't help but notice some of the "suburb early escapes" are looking rather shabby. Some of your neighbors aren't taking care of their property either. And, frankly, the building codes haven't been enforced well in the suburbs. Some of you who built needed to go regularly to the site to measure studs and go look in the spaghetti wiring and" piece and putty" rather than mitered corners millwork. Some of the contractors cut quality while cutting corners. You didn't get what you paid for.
Well...if you don't zone so as to protect neighborhoods from commercial development with buffer zones, this is what happens.
Trey Guerieri, if you are reading this, thank you for being the real hero.
In my world that is burglary.
NE Jackson is doomed, but don't move to Madison as we already have too many libs, and we know who they are.
Why? He was the landlord when there were shootouts.
Jackson is not as bad as Detroit *was*. Detroit has eliminated some crazy amount of their blight, like 80%. They are having a renaissance. And that is coming to Jackson in the next decade.
You forgot Detroit's BK that made the revival possible.
Homeless squatter fire waiting to happen.
Eastover, CCJ, Woodland Hills, Fondren and Belhaven
The last redoubts. You're without a clue how small you've just painted the city.
Correct. Stay in Jackson and encourage your Democrat friends to move out of Madison and Rankin counties and join you in the most radical city on the planet. You will all have such fun.
And in the 90s south jackson wasn't New West Jackson. You seem to not understand how Jackson has shrunk.
Anyone know Trey Guerieri? Please tell him to let the house be torn down. No amount of work can fix that.
6:43pm, Ride down Parkway Dr off Old Canton, you’re traveling toward Sedgewick and it looks like a war zone. You stare in shock at the destruction and disregard of civic pride. I used to live on Valley Vista the next street up from Parkway, there might be 2 white elderly people on the street and those houses look the best. NE Jackson looks like garbageville.
I think I am going to become a dealer of plywood... seems there will be a greater need over time (just drive down Terry Road to Byram).
For 47 years I lived in a home on Reddoch Drive, just one block north of this house. When the gunshots were pretty common I left for a smaller house in Ridgeland. The family that bought my old house, I hope they can live there as long as I did...
I got wind of it from the good folk over on the NorthEastJXN instagram months ago they been posting about this. i saw one time on their page it was a paint shop in the garage area for a few months smh
7:26 I’ll give you CCJ, the others are lovely but don’t walk your dog if you don’t want to get shot. I live in Madison, my neighbors’ houses don’t look just like mine, and I challenge you to point out the code violations and cut corners. Oh, and I often forget to lock my truck at night. Never had a problem. Enjoy Jackson.
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