The Hotel O on I-55 North may soon be gone. Jackson Municipal Court Judge Jeffrey Reynolds condemned the building Wednesday and gave the owner to ten days to clear everyone and everything out of the hotel.
Noah Muthana owns Hotel O on 4639 I-55 N frontage road in Jackson. Hinds County property tax records state he has owned the hotel for two years. JJ reported on March 19:
Jackson Municipal Court Judge Jeff Reynolds ordered the demolition of the Hotel O on I-55 N frontage road Friday.
Jackson cited Muthana for six code violations in June 2022. Jackson Municipal Court Judge Jeff Reynolds adjudicated the case on December 16. He said the hotel had unsafe electrical wiring, the roof was in a serious state of disrepair, defective plumbing, pervasive mold, and structural weaknesses. Residency-challenged individuals occupied the building even though there was no power. However, one should never underestimate human ingenuity, even among the residency-challenged. The squatters simply ran extension cords to outlets on adjacent properties. The Court said some cords were in contact with water. A detective testified Muthana had three employees who lived on the property.
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The Court said Muthana made no effort to improve the property. If anything, the property was "worse today than it was in November 2021, when the city first began investigating the property."
Muthana faced the wrath of Reynolds and went to jail after the Court found Muthana made no effort to improve the property. If anything, the property was "worse today than it was in November 2021, when the city first began investigating the property. Apparently, Muthana's financial backer was more than happy to let him sit in jail.
The defendant sat in jail for a few days before Judge Reynolds released him. Judge Reynolds ordered JPD to evict all "tenants" from the premises and Code Enforcement to ensure a secure fence surrounded the pool. Judge Reyonlds ordered Muthana to post a $275,000 secured appearance bond and $2,500 cost bond.
Muthana appealed to Hinds County Court. He argued the bonds violated the Eighth Amendment. The defendant paid the cost bond but not the appearance bond.
Judge Reynolds ruled Wednesday Muthana did not post an appearance bond nor file an affidavit of indigency (Mississippi Code 99-35-7). Thus the appeal was defective on its face. The Court said Mississippi Rule of Criminal Procedure 29.4(a) "leaves the amount of the appearance bond up to the trial judge's discretion." Judge Reynolds said the rule trumps the statute.
The defendant claimed he could not afford the $275,000 appearance bond but Judge Reynolds said he could have filed an affidavit of indigency. Judge Reynolds also pointed out Muthana retained four lawyers, thus limiting any claim of indigency.
The Court justified the amount of the appearance bond:
The Appearance Bond is $275,000, which is merely twenty-two percent (22%) of the estimated costs of refurbishing the Hotel to code, and merely 1.37 times the cost to demolish the Hotel per City code if the low-end estimate of $200,000 is used. Were it lower, Defendant, who has established his unwillingness to remedy this dangerous blight on the City, would be incentivized to flee rather than undertake the expensive work of refurbishing or demolishing the Hotel, which he allowed to fall into a condemnable state, then ignored repeated court orders to remedy.
Judge Reynolds condemned the hotel. Muthana has ten days to vacate the premises and remove "anything of value" he wishes to keep. The city will remove any and all persons from the hotel after ten days. The city will demolish the hotel and place a lien on the property.
21 comments:
Muthana's going to have to file for bankruptcy.
Residency-challenged individuals ? Must be the "woke" phrase for homeless people
Can you explain to me how an indigent person could buy this hotel, or want to?
need to do this for those around briarwood too.
One of many properties that need to be torn down in Jacktown.
Will the abandoned mall be next? It should be on the list? Since the city moved out because of it's poor condition.
10:45am
"...abandoned mall be next (for demo)?"
Metro Mall: where rats and COJ deals go to die.
Why are they calling just him out? Look at all the run down property in Jackson MS.
I’ve said it before on this page. All joking aside the only way Jackson comes back is this: every building that is not occupied and not meeting codes, and I mean some struck codes, is given 6 months to bring to code or it is torn down. Once torn down, concrete and all like it was never there. Throw some grass seed out plant one tree for every 2000 square feet and walk away. Once large areas are back to nature there is a chance development will occur. As development occurs fox the infrastructure in that area. Require nice buildings and green spaces. Step up law enforcement and make Jackson worth looking at again. I believe in the next 10 years people will be coming to Mississippi like Florida and Texas if we keep moving ahead and being businesses friendly. Our taxes are low our cost of living is low or weather is fairly nice and crime, other than Jackson, is not bad.
The problem is none of this will occur due to the mayor and the one just like him that will get elected next. I grew up in hinds county and now live in Hattiesburg. I never dreamed Stockes would one day look like the best choice for leader in Jackson leadership.
Since the judge is condemning things that are falling apart, not functional, or dangerous, when will he condemn the city of Jackson?
Judge Reynolds is the first REAL judge the city has had in YEARS!!
He can only rule on cases that Community Improvement brings before him.
@11:57am
Hotel O, a commercial property, is actively creating and or permitting risk of fire, injury, disease and death of it's wittingly welcomed inhabitants and other members of the public.
This situation deserves quicker, stricter legal sanctions than a deserted warehouse or vacant office building.
I'm sure this august brain trust knows that Reynolds campaigned for, and was appointed by his pal, Da Mair. Even had a fundraiser for him at his home. Carry on.
12:13 None of that matters in development. No one is coming to Mississippi. The property is cheap enough. No one is investing in Mississippi.
"...rats and COJ deals..."
It takes rats to make a COJ deal.
12:23 nailed it.
Nailed it? Perhaps. But nobody reads that long-ass convoluted bull shit. Even if YOU do like YOUR OWN post and comment on it.
So many fond memories of that place back in the late 70's/mid 80's.
But as is Jacktown, all good things must come to an end. Hotel O should have been razed years ago.
Tear that hotel down !
Also, tear down the gas stations around it.
The administrative rush to condemn and demolish on the I55 west frontage is of a suspicious vigor and unusual scent. Angelique's sudden press friendly availability as a (supposed) business development savvy Councilmember is also curiously timed considering her paucity of experience at anything beyond following marching orders.
@5:51: Are you serious? It was well written,not by me, and about one half of a page. My goodness...
More like well trod by 10,000+ JJ comments before rather than well written.
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