For a more positive tale, Turner recommended that the Dallas Observer speak with Eric Graves, owner of Rerunz in Wilmer. The former truck driver and his wife started their "resell store" two years ago. Their hobby has now grown into a business that supports the family's five children. A frequent customer overheard a discussion about buying a new home and recommended Turner for the job.
"He's cheap, and if he does everything that he says, it'll be a great deal," Graves says.
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Eileen Sanchez hoped construction of her new home would have started by now, but these plans are as close as she will come to owning it.
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Graves gave Turner $800 in earnest money six months ago, followed by another $2,000 once the deal seemed to be progressing. Graves now has blueprints for a six-bedroom, three-bathroom house to be built for less than $80,000. Graves says he does not know how Turner spent his money and has seen no evidence that building materials were purchased. All he has are blueprints. An original land deal, coordinated by Graves, fell through.
"I was going to buy the land and he'd build on it," Graves says. "It's not his fault."
Turner is now helping him find land on which to build his home.
"I'm not real leery," Graves says of entrusting the construction of his family's home to an untested builder. "It took longer than I thought it would to get the blueprints. But from what I've read and what he's given me, it seems all right. I have no complaints."
Not so complacent are Jesus and Julie Fabela. In January the Fabelas visited with Turner at the Faith Building Systems office. The family has two children, ages 3 years and 8 months. He is a 22-year-old janitor and maintenance clerk. His wife is 21.
"We thought he was a very good person, that there was nothing wrong about him," Julie Fabela says.
Turner asked the Fabelas to give him $500 to get started on the blueprints and other unspecified "paperwork." Turner, dressed in his usual shorts, tennis shoes, and T-shirt, said he could build a 1,900-square-foot home for $79,000. When the Fabelas said they were looking at land to build on, he told them he had land picked out but never revealed the address.
Jesus Fabela only gave him $250 of the $500 Turner requested. Turner was accommodating when Fabela asked to pay in installments.
"I had a good impression at first...He never showed me anything he had ever built. How could I be sure he'll build one for me if he's never done it before?" Jesus says. "So I asked a lot of questions. He had an answer for every one."
But when Jesus went to his father-in-law for money to give to Turner, his father-in-law refused because he had reservations about the builder. His suspicion proved prescient when Turner's deals languished and promises were broken. The delays became a permanent stall, now a tailspin. It became evident that the blueprints they purchased were never going to arrive.
"After I gave him the money, he said it would take a week to get my blueprints," Jesus says. "I never received them at all." A similar ordeal faced the Fabelas when they tried to get their money back. "He said he was sending it through the mail, but I haven't received anything."
Turner stopped returning phone calls after Fabela asked for his money back. The family is now looking at pre-built homes and is steadily realizing how ludicrous his offer was.
2"Now we look at homes and how much they cost," Julie Fabela says. "My husband says, 'Look how expensive.' But I tell him that [Morris Turner] wasn't being truthful."
Eileen Sanchez and Morris Turner are virtually neighbors. Oftentimes Sanchez will pass the Faith Building Systems parking lot and see Turner's truck parked there. She wonders if he paid for it with her money.
In late April, Sanchez pulled up next to Turner at a stoplight in Grand Prairie. "I was staring at him to see if he'd turn his head and look at me again. He had a hamburger in one hand," she says. "We made eye contact at first, but then he kept his head turned so he'd never have to look at me again."
Sanchez now keeps busy gathering information and plaintiffs for a small claims lawsuit aimed at Faith Building Systems. She is slowly gathering information, making contacts, comparing stories, and accruing documentation. She now understands the details of how she was conned. And the diminutive woman starts to get angry.
"I want my money back, and I want him to stop doing what he's doing," she says. "He's playing games with people's lives."
Sanchez's other project is searching for a larger apartment to meet the needs of her family as the children grow. Recently, she began conversations with another builder regarding a custom-built home. Armed with her experience, she peppered the man with questions bordering on paranoia.
"I apologized to him for not believing him," Sanchez says. "But I learned not to trust anybody. That's what it comes down to."
