Elderly man and his best friend defeat land grab and undue influence.

Julius Woody, 95, can finally rest easy after an eight-year legal battle that started when three interlopers tried to take his land and possessions through undue influence.

The case recently ended with an order protecting Julius from future predations and a payment of $300,000.

The Chatham County case involved allegations of racketeering, elder abuse, and manufactured evidence.  It wound its way to the Court of Appeals and back twice.  Main characters tried to shield themselves by pleading the Fifth. 

The twists kept coming.

Julius was minding his general store in Chatham County and living out his twilight years on his 141-acre family farm when Shannon Chad Gaines, Carrie Vickrey, and Donald Ayscue moved into his home in May of 2017.  They pulled the curtains, installed surveillance equipment, and controlled access to Woody for months.  They also closed Woody's general store. 

Gaines, then a Marine Corps officer and military police officer, was the son of Carrie Vickrey by her first marriage.  Ayscue was Carrie’s fiancé.  They knew Julius through his best friend of more than 40 years, Randy Vickrey, who had recently divorced Carrie.

Within weeks of the Gaines trio occupying his property, Julius executed a string of legal instruments, including deeds, a new will, powers of attorney, and other documents designed to convey all his worldly possessions and rights primarily to Gaines.

At the same time, Julius also became convinced that his loved ones and friends were enemies but that Gaines, Carrie Vickrey, and Ayscue were the only ones he could trust.  A forensic psychiatrist would later determine that Julius was not competent and had been influenced to change his beliefs and behavior.

When Randy learned that Gaines had been given a deed to all of Julius’s land, he took legal action.

Randy had been the trustee of a Living Trust that held legal title to Julius’s land for nearly a decade.  The deed Julius signed for Gaines conveyed nothing because the land hadn’t been in Julius’s individual name for many years.  That poor legal work by Gaines’s attorney allowed Randy to transfer the land from the Trust to himself for safekeeping before Gaines caught the mistake.

Represented by the same Pittsboro lawyer, Paul Messick, Gaines and Julius sued Randy to obtain title to the property.

Reiss & Nutt represented Randy, and later Julius.  Randy brought claims against the Gaines trio that included racketeering, undue influence, civil conspiracy, and other violations of common law and statutes.  W. Cory Reiss, Randy’s primary attorney, successfully moved to disqualify Messick from representing Julius and Gaines, which eventually resulted in appointment of a guardian ad litem for Julius and then his exit from the case.

Under new representation, the Gaines trio invoked their Fifth Amendment right to silence when Reiss took their depositions.  But once discovery was exchanged and they learned the scope of the evidence against them, Gaines decided to sit for a deposition taken by his own attorney—a highly unusual move.  Gaines tried to justify their actions and explain away evidence of wrongdoing, but on cross-examination he was forced to admit he had created beneficial evidence after the fact and had passed it off as legitimate in the discovery process.  He also admitted the trio had invoked their right to silence so they could learn what the evidence showed before deciding to testify.  Shortly before trial, the Gaines trio produced dozens of documents they should have produced years earlier.

Those discovery violations were enough to convince a Superior Court judge to deliver a crushing sanction against Gaines and his conspirators: He struck their answers to Randy’s claims and entered judgment against them on all liability issues.

Gaines and company appealed (for a second time), which was unsuccessful.  With liability for racketeering and other serious civil claims established, the matter was sent back for a trial scheduled to begin in July 2025 on damages. 

Faced with the prospect of judgments for compensatory and punitive damages, the Gaines trio agreed to allow an order prohibiting them from ever contacting Julius Woody and striking from the record all the fraudulent legal instruments they had influenced Julius to sign.  They also agreed to a pay money for nearly eight years Randy spent battling to protect Julius and his property.

Julius has since reconciled with friends and family.  He can never regain that lost time, but Randy visits him daily to ensure Julius is safe and comfortable.