VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A man accused of stealing a dead veteran’s house then selling it to someone else was arrested in Volusia County, according to the state attorney’s office.
The 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office said Javon Renard Walden, 36, was arrested Wednesday.
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“The defendant created and filed fraudulent deeds in an attempt to obtain properties from folks he grew up with. He used his knowledge of these folks and their particular vulnerabilities to feed his greed. The State Attorney’s Office looks forward to holding him accountable for his criminal conduct,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in a release.
Carolyn Shank contacted News 6 earlier this year when she went to her brother’s Daytona Beach home shortly after he died last year and spotted a moving truck outside. The men told her Walden owned the home and hired them to do the work.
Shank later realized a handwritten deed on the home said her brother had given the house to Walden for free, something she said her brother would not do.
“I was shocked,” said Shank, who has done extensive research into the questionable real estate transaction. “I’ve got to find this little rascal and put a stop to it.”
But what troubled Shank the most about the deed were the dates written on it. The handwritten deed indicated it had been executed on Sept. 11, about two months before her brother’s death.
But the deed was notarized on Nov. 20, exactly one week after Gadson’s body was found.
“It’s impossible for him to come back from the dead to sign a deed in front of a notary,” Shank said.
Walden faces charges from an organized scheme to defraud.