Dyersburg realtor duped by Kentucky fugitive

Jason Smith

He ended up there after a Dyersburg alderman and realtor began questioning the man's claims. Shannon Walker of All-Star Real Estate made a few phone calls and searched the Internet, where he found the man's photograph on Kentucky's most wanted criminals list. Walker reported the man's location to the Kentucky State Police.

The man, Jason Smith, was indicted in Bowling Green, Ky., last August for passing more than $100,000 worth of bad checks. He was accused of writing the checks while trying to establish the Kentucky Mavericks, an American Basketball Association team in Bowling Green, according to an article by the Bowling Green Daily News.

Walker said he met Smith on Dec. 1. Smith told Walker his parents and grandparents had died and left him $18 million. He claimed he couldn't spend any of the money without the approval of a board of directors, but a certain amount of that money had to be spent immediately.

Smith traveled with his board of directors - about 10 members of his fiancee's family - in a limousine to look at several Dyersburg properties. Walker said he wrote $4 million worth of contracts on Dyersburg real estate that day. Smith even went so far as to have some of the properties inspected. But Smith never put up the earnest money needed to solidify the contracts.

Walker said Smith gave him a check on a closed account and told him he was planning to get loans to cover the earnest money. Smith gave him the name of a contact at one bank - a person who didn't exist - and then said he was moving to a different bank. An employee at the second bank told Walker that Smith had opened an account but had not yet made a deposit.

"I got real suspicious and started to investigate," Walker said.

Walker called the father of Smith's fiancée in Memphis. The father told Walker that Smith had stolen their checkbooks and credit cards. He'd left his vehicle at the father's house, though. The license plate was from Warren County, Ky., and the biggest town there is Bowling Green. So, Walker went to the Internet and searched for Bowling Green newspapers, where he found articles about Smith, the Kentucky Mavericks and the worthless checks he was accused of passing there.

Walker said he called the Warren County sheriff's department and the sheriff's department called the Bowling Green Police. Neither agency had any outstanding warrants for Smith.

Walker wasn't satisfied with that. He continued searching the Internet and found Smith's photograph on Kentucky's "most wanted" list. He called the Kentucky State Police about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6, told them about his experiences with Smith and gave them Smith's most recent address in Memphis.

The Kentucky State Police called Walker about 9:45 that night to tell him that Smith had been arrested.

Unfortunately, there was no reward for the capture of Smith. Had there been, Walker said he would have shared it with the house inspectors and the limo driver who were never paid for their services.

Walker said he spent a lot of time with Smith and had purchased meals while working with him, but he doesn't feel that he lost anything monetarily.

At least, not like the limo driver did. Walker said Smith paid Barrett Betts with a worthless $6,300 check. Betts, who owns Parks Limousine in Union City, did not return a phone call Tuesday night.

Walker said Betts had driven Smith and his "board of directors" around Dyersburg and to Little Rock, Ark., where he planned to buy more real estate. Walker said he understood that Smith had signed $13.7 million worth of real estate contracts in Little Rock.

Walker said he believes Smith opted for a limousine so that people wouldn't check the license plate on his vehicle. Walker said he learned that the vehicle was stolen and the license plates had expired.

After Smith's arrest, Walker returned to the Internet again and typed Smith's name into the Google search engine. The second entry that appeared that day was a MySpace page featuring Jason Smith. Walker was stunned. It appeared, he said, that Smith had developed the Web page from jail.

Walker said Smith was a "complete gentleman" during their dealings.