AXTON, Va. -- To those who rushed to buy a ticket for the
$110 million Powerball lottery, consider the case of Jody Lee Taylor.
In the nearly 11 years since Taylor won $4.3 million in the
Virginia Lottery, he lost his way and then his family. Now Taylor, 34, has lost his
freedom, is locked up in the Henry County jail and is charged with trying to kill a police
officer after sheriff's deputies dragged him -- naked -- from his pickup truck in such a
rage that he had to be restrained.
His father, Alvin T. Taylor, sitting on the porch of his
house here in Pittsylvania County, a few miles from the North Carolina border, wishes his
son had never walked into Byrd's Store and bought the Virginia Lottery "EZ Pick"
ticket.
"Out of 10,000 people, there might be one who could
handle the money," Taylor said, his arms reddened from helping a neighbor dig a
grave. "The rest, it would push them over the edge."
Americans spent $42.4 billion on lottery tickets in 2002,
according to an industry group. Many people play the numbers in hopes that a windfall will
change their lives -- most assume for the better. But Jody Taylor's friends and family say
it doesn't always work out that way. His is a cautionary tale of money and freedom and bad
choices, they say.
The Henry County sheriff, Frank Cassell, would not allow a
reporter into the jail to interview Taylor. Taylor's attorney, R. Reid Young III, did not
return several calls. But those who know Jody Taylor well -- his family, his friends and
sheriff's deputies from two counties -- say he was a hell-raiser well before he became a
rich man. He had a weakness for drink and drugs, they say. And when he got lit, he often
took his rage out on Ford vehicles and his now-estranged wife, Jennifer.
By the time Taylor walked into Byrd's Store and bought his
ticket, he had already been convicted of beating up Jennifer, reckless driving and driving
while intoxicated. A week before he won the lottery, a probation officer noted that he had
lost his job and owed $335 in court fees, according to documents filed in Henry County
Circuit Court.
Taylor's numbers came in on the day after Christmas in
1992. He chose his winnings to be distributed in 20 yearly payments of $220,000, lottery
officials said. At age 24, one of the richest men in one of the state's poorest areas,
wild Jody Taylor went even wilder.
"He never had nothing, he hadn't aspired to anything
and then he had it all at once," Jennifer Taylor said. "It was
overwhelming."
Taylor's friends say his streak of generosity grew even
stronger after he hit it big. He has donated truckloads of firewood to the volunteer fire
department and has helped other groups such as the rescue squad. Friends have received
extravagant gifts. He was sort of a Robin Hood with a backhoe, always willing to help
someone dig out a swimming pool or a driveway and never charging a dime. And when he built
a large house on some land nearby, Taylor threw a Gatsby-esque Fourth of July party
complete with a huge fireworks display.
But those same friends say that the instant cash slowed
Taylor's maturation. "We were drinking buddies, dope buddies, whatever," said
Randall Shively, a large man with a gravelly voice who grew up with Taylor.
"Then," he said, motioning to his wife, "I straightened up."
But Taylor didn't, he said.
"He had all the time in the world, all the money in
the world," Shively said.
Others began clinging to Taylor after he struck it rich,
taking advantage of his natural generosity and gregariousness, friends said. "You got
a lot of friends when you got a lot of money," Shively said.
Many thought Taylor hit bottom Feb. 9, 1995, when he set
fire to the Ford Thunderbird he had given Jennifer and then fired 15 bullets from a
.45-caliber pistol into the yellow linoleum floor of their double-wide trailer. According
to Pittsylvania County Circuit Court documents, police recovered marijuana from Taylor,
along with four other weapons.
He was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of
arson, shooting at an occupied dwelling and possession of marijuana. The court also
ordered the Virginia Lottery to take $17,000 of Taylor's winnings to reimburse the
insurance company for Jennifer Taylor's Thunderbird.
Friends and family said Taylor calmed down a bit when he
got out of jail. He started his own business, T-N-T Excavating and Hauling Inc., and began
planning for a new house and farm. He and Jennifer had a son.
But Taylor's wild ways soon began anew. "People took
advantage of him. But you have to let them take advantage," his wife said.
"He chose drugs over his family," she said,
crying in the driveway of her mother's house. "The day I left, I knew there was
nothing else I could do."
That was a year ago. Since then, friends and family say,
Taylor's problems have gotten worse.
Early on June 14 -- the day before Father's Day -- Jody
Taylor was driving his new Ford F-250 pickup on Route 58, a rural four-lane road dotted
with Baptist churches, off-brand gas stations and storefronts that offer high-interest
cash advances. But Taylor was driving on the wrong side of the road with his lights off,
according to Capt. Kimmy Nester of the Henry County sheriff's office.
He led a sheriff's deputy on a car chase that ended up in a
muddy field, where the police cruiser got stuck, Nester said. The deputy got out, and
Taylor allegedly tried to run him over -- twice, Nester said.
"He would have been justified in using deadly
force," Nester said, praising the deputy's cool.
When Taylor's pickup got stuck, the deputy smashed the
window with a rock and dragged a raving Taylor out of his truck, police reported.
He was not wearing a stitch of clothing, police said, and
there was a shotgun inside his truck. Taylor spent a few days in the hospital and now
resides in the Henry County jail, without bail, awaiting a court appearance Aug. 7.
His friend Randall Shively said that since Taylor's highly
public and embarrassing arrest, folks in the county have been busy whispering. Even those
who were the recipients of Taylor's generosity.
"The dopeheads think it's funny," Shively said.
"But it might be a blessing in disguise. He needs some help."
And if Taylor loses everything and every dime, he is always
welcome in the Shively house.
But to Sheriff Cassell, there is also a deeper lesson to be
found.
"This man would have been better off without the
money, frankly," Cassell said. "It certainly didn't help him, I can tell you
that."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company |
