Jasper County Sheriff’s Report - 12/16/2025

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office is proud to announce that Deputy Brian Gray is the employee of the month for November 2025. Deputy Gray is a 14-year law-enforcement veteran. Deputy Gray continuously exhibits exceptional job performance, attitude and dedication. He is an extremely hard worker and always gives a day’s work for a day’s pay. He always goes the extra mile. Although we go to great lengths to protect and train our employees to deal with emergencies and dangers, sometimes we must put our citizens’ safety over our own.  Deputy Gray is always the first one in line to put himself in between a dangerous situation and our citizens. This type of commitment is what we expect and appreciate from our employees.

Everyone at the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office sends our sincere condolences to Constable Niles Nichols.  He lost one of his sons in a car crash on Saturday. Please keep Constable Nichols and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

On December 9th, 2025, at approximately 9:45 a.m., Sergeant Chris Wade arrested William Lawrence Kelly, 66, of Brookeland in Jasper. An arrest warrant was obtained for Kelly on December 8th, 2025, for Failure to comply with Sex Offender Duties-3rd Degree Felony.

On December 3rd, 2025, Justin Elton Key, 40, of Brookeland, was arrested by JCSO Investigator A.J. Noel for two Criminal Mischief Class A Misdemeanor warrants. One Criminal Mischief arrest stems from an incident that occurred on November 30th, 2025, when Key was incarcerated at the Jasper County Jail. Key intentionally damaged a window in a holding cell. The estimated damage he caused to the window was $1551.10. The other Criminal Mischief arrest stemmed from an incident recently at the Lake Rayburn Fire Department Substation #2. Key had allegedly damaged the parking lot at the fire department by recklessly operating an ATV causing significant damage of approximately $980.00. 

On December 9th, 2025, at approximately 2 p.m., deputies responded to CR 758 in Buna regarding a Family Violence call. Dillan Calloway, 32, of Silsbee was at the residence causing a verbal disturbance. He was detained and found to be in possession of a suspected methamphetamine substance. He was transported to the Jasper County Jail and charged with Possession Controlled Substance PG1 <1g (State Jail Felony).

On December 10^th, 2025, there was a large police presence on County Road 803 at County Road 797, just east of Highway 62, in Buna.  An active manhunt lasted several hours.  Three black males had stolen a vehicle out of Beaumont PD.  Deputies searched a large, wooded area with one of the suspects being arrested after two hours.  He is a 16-year-old, black juvenile male, so his name wasn’t released. He was treated by EMS at the scene for wounds on his feet and taken into custody. At approximately 2:34 PM, I received a call from Hardin County Sheriff Mark Davis who advised me that he just received a call regarding two black males walking along on FM 2246 in south Jasper County. Jasper County Sheriff deputies were immediately deployed to the location, and the other two suspects were taken into custody. One suspect was identified as Ja’Shawn Thompson, 19, of Beaumont. The other suspect was identified as Rashode Wiltz, 21, of Beaumont. These two suspects were transported to the Jasper County Jail and charged with several crimes. The investigation is ongoing. I’d like to give a big shout out to Hardin County Sheriff Mark Davis for providing the information to us. Additionally, I want to thank our deputies, members of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Aircraft, DPS and all of our citizens.

We had a busy day December 11^th, 2025, out in the community. We started off the morning at “Career Day” at Jasper High School. We had our patrol cars, boat, K9 Rhino and deputies out there on display for the students. There were in excess of 1,000 students who attended from several area schools. Our next stop was at the Nehemiah Center in Jasper for their annual Christmas Bingo Celebration. I was honored to lead the group in an opening prayer and was able to visit with a lot of people. Their hospitality is always second to none. After that, I attended the 90th year celebration for the Woman’s Civic Club of Kirbyville with Judge Allen and Commissioner Stark. It was certainly interesting hearing the history of the club and how it was formed. Those Kirbyville ladies have been getting extraordinary things done for 90 years. It was truly a pleasure attending this event and visiting with so many accomplished ladies! Finally, Chief Pulliam and several members of our staff traveled to the Jasper VFW and were presented with several bikes for our Blue Santa Program. This organization is extremely good to us and we are grateful for their generosity. 

We had another busy day on Saturday, December 13^th, 2025.  Captain Joe Pomponio and our trustees assisted the staff at Sleep in Heavenly Peace. This organization builds beds for needy children in our county and across Southeast Texas. About 40 beds were constructed by the end of the day. We commend our inmates for doing great work with this project. Sergeant Cody Christopher attended the annual “Toy Giveaway” at the Nehemiah Center in Jasper. Lots of toys were given away at this event! We appreciate Brother Ray Lewis and his members for inviting us to this celebration. While Sergeant Christopher was attending the event at Nehemiah Center, I attended the 1st annual “Turkey Giveaway” put on by First Team Outreach. The event took place at Magnolia Park in Kirbyville. Twenty families were blessed with turkeys and various other items. The gumbo was great. Thank you, Brother Jackson! After that, I assisted our deputies with a family disturbance call just north of Kirbyville. Fortunately, after we arrived, we determined there was no law violation. Immediately after leaving Kirbyville, we were dispatched to a two-vehicle crash in Buna on Highway 96. We had to shut the roadway down so an EMS helicopter could land and transport a crash victim to a Beaumont hospital. We will be praying for the victims of this crash and hope for a speedy recovery. Finally, I was honored to be able to attend the annual Buna Fire Department Christmas party. The food and fellowship were awesome. Congratulations to Randall Clark and Kaydie Stout for being named Firefighters of the Year for 2024 and 2025. We appreciate the sacrifices of our volunteer firemen and their families across Jasper County.

On December 14th, 2025, at approximately 7:37 a.m., JCSO received a call regarding a fully engulfed residential fire located at 1087 FM2800 in Jasper. Deputy Brian Gray was first on the scene and was able to move one elderly female away from the residence and to safety. After the flames were extinguished, members of the Jasper Fire Department located a deceased individual. The victim is a local man, but his name will not be released at this time. The elderly female was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. JCSO investigators were on the scene and kept it secure until the State Fire Marshal’s Office arrived. Several area Fire Departments responded to this fire along with DPS and Jasper Police Department. Our hearts and prayers are with the family at this very difficult time. 

On December 13th, 2025, at 5:44 P.M., Jasper County Deputy James Roy conducted a traffic stop for a traffic violation in the 34000 block of US Highway 96 in Buna.  The driver, Vidrick Paul Blackwell Jr, 35, of Beaumont, showed to have an outstanding warrant for Assault Causing Bodily Injury, Class A Misdemeanor. The warrant was confirmed. Blackwell Jr. was placed under arrest and transported to the Jasper County Jail.

Everyone listed in this report is innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

We are here for you and your families, 24/7.  It is a privilege and honor representing the people of this county.  

Respectfully,

Chuck Havard

Jasper County Sheriff