A Jacksonville builder, accused of scamming a 91-year-old North Little Rock widow out of her home and money, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing Wednesday by a Pulaski County jury.
Defense attorney Jeff Rosenzweig told jurors that prosecutors were trying to "put a square peg in a round hole" by charging Marcus Andrew Dupree with felony theft, a charge that carried a potential 20-year prison sentence.
The nine women and three men deliberated about 90 minutes to acquit Dupree, 38, after the one-day trial before Circuit Judge Barry Sims.
Gretchen Madison hired Dupree to build her a house in 2012, and she got one although she might not be happy with it, Rosenzweig told jurors.
Her testimony was that what Dupree built for her is an uninhabitable "hull." But that's because she didn't give Dupree a chance to finish, Rosenzweig told the jury.
"Is that a crime, to run late on a building project?" Rosenzweig asked jurors. "He was kicked off the job before it was finished."
Their dispute should be resolved in civil court through the lawsuit Madison has filed against Dupree, his Northstar Consultants company and associates Joy Kinman and Robert A. Walker, Rosenzweig told jurors.
Dupree might have misjudged the expense and effort of the project, but how can he be accused of stealing from Madison when she or her daughter, Christine Parsley, willingly gave him every payment to fulfill his construction contract.
If he was just taking the money, why did he keep working on the house? the attorney asked.
"How in the world is this unauthorized control of money when someone is writing you a check?" Rosenzweig asked jurors. "This case is a simple dispute over the quality of workmanship and the speed of workmanship."
Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley told jurors that Dupree had promised to build Madison a house she could brag about, but left her with an uninhabitable "heap" and no money.
Madison had lived on that Freda Road property for 49 years and raised seven children, five of them her own, in a 900-square-foot home until it was ruined by black mold from a water leak.
She paid Dupree $59,994, everything she got from an insurance settlement for her ruined house, but he didn't finish the project despite a whole lot of promises and three extensions over four months, the prosecutor said.
"Actions speak louder than words. He promised Gretchen Madison he would finish the turnkey job on Nov. 2 [2012]. Did he? No!" Jegley told jurors. "He promised her multiple times, 'I'll finish it in two weeks.' Did he? No! That's not a house, a home. It's a pile of junk."
Jegley asked jurors not to further punish Madison in their verdict, because she tried to do the right thing and give Dupree a chance to live up to his promises. She's been punished enough, he said.
"She got punished and she continues to be punished. She has no money and she has no house," he said.
Dupree was the low bidder when she collected estimates to replace her home, Madison testified. She had met him through her daughter after he had done some remodeling work on Parsley's garage, Madison said.
She told jurors she treated him like one of her children, even giving him presents of a crocheted centerpiece and homemade jelly and chowchow relish when he got married in October 2012.
"He said when he got through, I would recommend him to all of my friends," said Madison, who now lives on her daughter's property. "I trusted him. He's well-mannered and soft-spoken."
Testifying as expert witnesses were Andy Branton, an architect for the state fire marshal's office; Mike Wallace, owner of Mallard Contractors in Vilonia; and Jimmy Thomas, an investigator for the state Contractors Licensing Board.
Thomas told jurors that Northstar Consultants had its contracting license revoked for misconduct regarding Dupree's failure to finish the job.
'It was disheartening ... to see that guy had done this work this way," said Thomas, who is also a licensed contractor.
Thomas said he didn't think the house could be made fit to live in. He told jurors it would be cheaper and faster to tear down what Dupree built and start again.
"The project to me would be less expensive, less time-consuming, to tear that structure down and start over," he said.
Branton said he couldn't find any part of the house that met safety and construction standards.
"Just about every major structure of this house is substandard," he testified. "It did not meet the minimum standards as established by the building code."
Wallace, a homebuilder for 20 years, said he would not take on a job fixing a house in the state that Madison's house is in.
"I'd have to start from the foundation and go up," he said.
Metro on 10/29/2015