Neighbors of a Trinity man charged with third-degree burglary on Monday for allegedly breaking into and living in an unoccupied house said on Thursday he is “a nice guy.”

Michael Leeshawn Jackson, 38, is accused of living for weeks in the North Greenway Drive residence in Trinity prior to his arrest, according to a Trinity police affidavit.

“I kept noticing this guy messing around over there,” said Don Smith, 75, who’s lived nearby for nearly 30 years with his wife, Yolanda Smith. “He’d pull into the back of the house to park his car.”

Don Smith said the elderly husband and wife who previously occupied the house Jackson is accused of squatting in passed away, and that the house had been unoccupied for around a year. The Smiths notified the deceased couple’s daughter, who they said lives in Madison, of the unexpected tenant.

The daughter did not wish to be named and declined comment on Thursday, citing concerns over jeopardizing the criminal case.

“I’m a prayer person,” said Yolanda Smith. “Everything in my spirit was upset about it. I just knew something was wrong.”

The Smiths appeared conflicted about Jackson’s arrest, noting that his mother lives in the area and that he has children. During his occupancy, Jackson even came to the Smith’s home and exchanged introductions with Don Smith.

“He was very well-mannered when he talked to my husband,” Yolanda Smith said.

Don Smith said Jackson had been living on the property for around a month and speculated that he began squatting in the house after noticing its state.

“The property was in bad shape with overgrown grass and tree limbs over there,” Don Smith said.

When Jackson started living on the property, he’d arrive late at night and park his vehicle behind the house where it was barely visible from the street, according to Don Smith.

“He did that for several weeks before he got a grass crew to clean up,” Don Smith said, adding that he had noticed four or five additional vehicles at the property one day and people mowing grass and stacking lumber.

Don Smith said he presumes the cleanup was part of an effort to eventually lay legal claim on the property.

“He was following the Alabama laws to a T,” he said.

Under Alabama adverse possession laws, trespassers can lay legal claim to a property after openly inhabiting and improving it for 20 years.

Civil litigator and estate lawyer Greg Shelton, of Shelton & Shelton law firm in Decatur, said he has had to have people arrested for trespassing on unoccupied houses before while dealing with estates and trusts.

“The 20 years is kind of a ‘drop-dead’ date,” Shelton said. “So, if you’ve been using that property for 20 years, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been paying the taxes, it just has to be: hostile, notorious, adverse; it has to be open and obvious to the whole world that you’re claiming that property.”

A hostile possession means the occupant is trespassing against the rightful owner, either deliberately, ignorantly or through an honest mistake, such as an incorrect deed.

Notorious possession means the occupant must not try to hide the act of trespassing.

Additionally, the trespasser must be physically present on the land and treat it as their own, and the possession must be continuous for the 20-year duration.

“If you’re able to do that for 20 years, then they’re going to allow you to have it,” Shelton said. “But you have to go to court to establish that adverse possession.

“It’s more set up around land than it is a house, but it can apply to a house as that’s part of the land.”

Shelton said a 10-year adverse possession law, which requires payment of property taxes, is more commonly used in disputes over land borders. For example, if someone mistakenly builds a fence over the border of a neighbor’s property, they may legally claim the land the fence sits on after 10 years.

Squatters in some other states, such as New York, are afforded legal tenant status after 30 days of occupancy, according to Shelton.

“In Alabama, if you come home one day and somebody’s in your house, you just have them arrested and that will be the end of that,” he said.

On Thursday, the house Jackson had been living in appeared empty. A fresh “no trespassing” sign had been taped to the front door. An identical sign was also taped to a sedan that the Smiths said had since been pulled across the driveway to block entrance to the rear.

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