Family tries to sort out shooting death
Published 12:17 am Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Sheena Colon wants to know why.
Why her sister can’t call her anymore to share a ribald tale.
Why her sister can’t have pedicures and manicures with her anymore.
Why her sister will never share another secret with her.
Why her sister had to die of a gunshot wound in the front yard of somebody’s house on Philpot Avenue.
Sheena Colon cries for her sister and for her loss.
“I just want answers,” she said.
Jessica Colon, 24, died of a single gunshot wound to the chest Monday during a shootout between her boyfriend, John Jones Jr. and Tommy Blythe at 1613 Philpot Ave.
Relatives say Jessica and Jones had gone over to Blythe’s house to collect on some money he owed the young woman. She had paid for Blythe’s bond not long ago.
That money came through hard work — something Jessica knew a lot about.
She worked at D and J Auto Sales on Highland.
Belinda and Kay Holbrook treated her like one of their family and she them.
Kay Holbrook sat in a chair in his sales office Tuesday afternoon and wept for the loss.
“She wasn’t a bad person. Lord knows, trouble could find her, but she was good as gold,” Holbrook said. “She was almost like a daughter to me.”
Jessica would work behind the desk, answering the telephone or , if necessary, she would move the cars on the lot.
“She kept you busy with mess and foolishness,” Holbrook said.
When she wasn’t busy with the particulars of her job at the used car dealership, she was playing with Holbrook’s grandchild, whom Jessica called, “Sugah Momma.”
Jessica didn’t have children of her own, but she cared for the children of others when their parents had to be away.
She was not pregnant at the time of her death as rumored by some people, said her mother, Louisia Colon.
She had just gotten an apartment near her place of employment. But she spent most of her time just hanging around friends and family. She took care of people, her friends and family said.
“Jessica was a sweet girl, and she would give you the shirt off her back if you asked her to,” said Sheena Colon.
The youngest of three children raised by a single parent, the older sister, Sheena, stepped in to help. She adored the younger sister.
The last time they talked, Jessica called Sheena from work Monday and carried on some foolishness over the telephone.
“She said, ‘Come by my house,’” Sheena said as tears rolled down her cheeks and a big sob escaped her throat. “I said I would come by. The next call was they told me she got shot.”
Blythe is charged with murder in Jessica’s death. Jones is charged with being a certain person forbidden to have a firearm. Both are in Dallas County Jail under no bond. A hearing is set for the two of them sometime today in Dallas County District Court.
Authorities have said the investigation is continuing and have released no more details of the shooting.
“Nothing will ever be the same,” said Kay Holbrook, who celebrated his 49th birthday Monday. “Nothing will ever be the same. We will never hear her laugh again.”