Granddaughter: Parolee Murdered Virgil Dean Gray

Sherry Gray Deemer checked the name on the hospital bracelet to be sure of who was lying in the bed. Her uncle, Virgil Dean “Honey” Gray, had been badly beaten, so badly that she couldn’t recognize his face.

“He had COPD,” said Honey’s granddaughter Shanda Carter. “He was getting to the point where he was starting to run out of breath just going down the hallway. I really just hope that he was unconscious for most of it. I mean, this guy kicked him when he was down. He was unrecognizable. His face was so swollen, he was blind in one eye, he broke his ribs, I mean, he just waylaid him.”

Gray, 74, lie in the hospital for 11 days in a coma, surviving on life support until March 4, when he succumbed to his injuries and died, Carter said. The man responsible for her grandfather’s death has since been locked away in the Tom Green County Jail, awaiting the return of autopsy results and the possibility of a murder charge.

“I do not know him personally,” Carter said of 21-year-old Casey Aleman, the suspect in the crime. “My sister lives there with my grandfather…A girl named Robyn Roe (a friend of Carter’s sister), who we met when we came down for Christmas…has been staying there. Evidently, this guy was Robyn’s boyfriend.”

Carter’s sister, 29-year-old Felisha Lee, has been in jail since Jan. 25. When she was arrested her grandfather allowed Roe to stay, and he also rented a room to a Hispanic couple at his house on 42^nd St, Carter explained.

On Feb. 22, Casey Aleman, Honey Gray and the Hispanic couple were at the three-bedroom residence on 42^nd St., when Aleman began smoking synthetic marijuana and became violent and belligerent toward his housemates, court documents state.

Aleman attacked the couple, who were then able to flee outdoors, and from outside they heard a disturbance coming from inside the house, which was now occupied by only Honey and Aleman. When they ran back inside they found the old man, badly injured. Aleman then fled the scene.

Detective Ali Shah learned from Aleman’s girlfriend’s mother that shortly after the assault he had accidentally called her and left a voicemail saying that he’d “almost killed Honey”. The call was made from Honey’s home phone.

“From what I hear, [Robyn Roe] wasn’t at the house at the time, but after what that Casey guy did or whatever, he called her to pick him up and left with her,” Carter said. “She didn’t even call the ambulance or anything. It was the Hispanic couple, the woman that called the cops.”

Dean “Honey” Gray was born in Coleman and migrated to San Angelo in the mid-‘90s with his late wife.  Before he retired, Honey worked as a mechanic, and would often offer his skills to help friends who could just purchase the parts, Carter said.

“When he was still able to work on vehicles and stuff, if a friend of ours had a problem, he’d say, ‘well, y’all buy the parts and come over and I’ll show you what you need to do to fix it,’ and he’d help people fix their cars, free of charge,” his granddaughter recalled. “He taught us how to change the oil, change tires, what not to do or what to do, I guess,” knowledge the 31-year-old still puts to use on her own vehicle.

Brother to former Tom Green County Sheriff Dan Gray, Virgil Dean “Honey” Gray meant a lot to many in the community and was known for his generosity, Carter said.

Post after post and comment after comment reported stories of his kindness, after police issued a press release on the incident on March 5.

“He helps everybody,” Carter said. “There’s many people in San Angelo that wouldn’t have made it without my grandfather’s kindness. He was the best. I’ve only seen him angry like twice in my life. He was understanding; he was compassionate toward people; he was tolerant. Over the years, a lot of people had stayed there that had nowhere to turn.”

Gray lived in a three-bedroom house that he had bought with his wife decades back when they moved to San Angelo. The home wasn’t particularly big, but was “big enough” that he was able to help people needing a place to stay.

At 74 years old, Gray had suffered a lot of tragedy in his life, losing his only son when he was 15 in a motorcycle accident, then losing his wife in ’98 to emphysema, Carter explained.

“…my mother unexpectedly died from an aneurism in 2003,” she said. “He suffered a lot of loss and I think that’s one of the reasons why he was so compassionate toward other people.”

After his wife passed away, Carter’s grandfather began smoking heavily, she said, which ultimately hampered his breathing. She moved away to Weatherford in 2012, but when she still lived in San Angelo and before his breathing got bad, she used to ride with him on Tuesdays and Saturdays to fill up the candy in the donation jars set up in restaurants around town for children’s charities.

She remembers him watching the news and NASCAR races, and his affinity for Barrett Jackson car auctions. The two were close, she said, so much so that she couldn’t think of a single thing she’d miss most about her grandpa Honey.

“I don’t know,” she said, her voice cracking, “everything. I’m going to miss sitting with him in his room drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.”

On Feb. 23, a day after he is accused of beating Gray nearly to death in his own home, Casey Aleman was picked up by detectives with the San Angelo Police Department in the 600 block of Preusser St.

By then, Honey, a nickname given him by his wife that was picked up by granddaughter Shanda when she was learning to talk, had been admitted to Shannon Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit.

Carter didn’t find out about the assault until some five days later, and when she arrived at the hospital she didn’t even recognize him. He was in a coma, she said, and she was never given the opportunity to talk to him or to say goodbye. If she had, she would have told him “thank you. Thank you for always being there for us. And I love you, of course,” she said sadly over the telephone. “He was the best.”

Honey’s body has been sent to Lubbock for autopsy, and depending on the medical examiner’s report, Aleman could face first-degree murder charges depending on what those results show.

“I hope he doesn’t see free ground for the rest of his life, if not the death penalty,” Carter said, adding she feels Roe should also be charged with something if she knew about the assault and didn’t report it. “It was so brutal what he did. He did it to a family member of his and then turned around right after he got out of prison and beat an old man to death. Who is he going to do it to next if he’s allowed to be free? He obviously doesn’t care.”

Carter said her uncle estimated that the autopsy would take anywhere from one to two weeks to complete, and when her grandfather is back, he’ll be buried in a family plot in Coleman next to his wife. Arrangements will be handled by Steven’s Funeral Home in Coleman.

Virgil Dean Gray left behind two granddaughters, 31-year-old Shanda Carter and 29-year-old Felisha Lee, and a grandson, 27-year-old Jerry Dean Lee. He also had three great-grandchildren, including a newborn baby girl, and a brother, as well as a living 98-year-old mother and extended family.