One day, probably on her third or fourth visit, my heart softened towards Jackie. She was persistent and she wanted her story told. I invited her into our conference room and listened, asking questions along the way.
Her story is a sad one, when explained from her point of view. Her marriage was upended at husband Dennis’ final year of his life despite the meticulous retirement planning the couple had laid out.
Jackie’s husband of 27 years, Dennis Robison, was a respected member of San Angelo’s society. As the founder and operator of Consolidated Contractors, Inc. he, with Jackie’s help, had built many of the signature commercial construction projects in the county. Every San Angelo ISD elementary school has a metal building used as a gym, for example. The Robisons built them. The Robisons’ CCI built the Texas State Bank Sports Complex. CCI remodeled the State Building, called the Dr. Ralph Chase State Office Building, that the City of San Angelo owns and leases to state agencies. He renovated the old and historic railroad warehouses that today houses the City’s Santa Fe Crossing Senior Center. On the campus of Angelo State University, CCI renovated the Porter Henderson Library and the president’s residence. Celebration Bridge that spans the Concho River behind the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts was a CCI project. The Robisons’ work was recognized nationally with awards for the construction of the Jack Lewright Family and Cosmetic Dentistry building on Southland Blvd.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Robisons’ CCI was a signature San Angelo success story and the Robisons celebrated their success by purchasing a 350-acre ranch in Knickerbocker.
Then, in 2010, tragedy struck. Dennis suffered severe heart problems and had to seek treatment in Austin over several months. Jackie claimed that while his company was unattended, employees stole around $1 million from him. Upon his return to San Angelo, Dennis could no longer cover the bonding requirements. He sold the CCI building and moved into a small rented office space to start over. The monumental challenge of rebuilding his business caused Dennis to suffer another stroke. His health was falling apart.
Meanwhile Jackie was suffering health problems of her own. The couple moved to Marble Falls to be closer to family. The era of CCI was over.
While moving in at Marble Falls, Jackie was suffering back pain and needed extensive surgery and rehabilitation. The treatment was fairly successful and led the couple to the idea of finishing their retirement back on the ranch in Knickerbocker. The couple began the process of moving back to the Concho Valley while Jackie was still enduring many months of rehab. Several months later, she joined Dennis back in Knickerbocker.
The Robisons collected precious metals, not stocks and bonds, to fund their retirement. Jackie explained in great detail how Dennis would purchase gold and silver collectable coins and store them in “monster boxes.”
“The going rate of silver when he started collecting was around $5 per ounce,” Jackie explained. Today, silver has risen to $25 an ounce and gold has risen from around $280 an ounce to $2,000 an ounce. With five- and 10-fold increases in the price of metals over the years, Jackie estimated that their retirement stash was worth north of $750,000 and they kept it hidden at the ranch.
“Whenever we needed spending money, we’d sell a Krugerrand,” Jackie said, referring to the South African one-ounce gold standard coin.
During the couples’ separation during and before the move back to Knickerbocker, Jackie claimed that Dennis’ estranged daughter, Erin Gregg, returned to his life. Jackie, the step mother, and Erin did not get along. Based upon emails Jackie produced, Erin didn’t appreciate her dad much, either. Dennis was a conservative Trump supporter who owned a gun collection. That was repugnant to Erin, she intimated to her dad via email. But, in a series of emails over months and years —and a meeting at the San Angelo I-Hop —father and daughter decided to make a go at repairing their relationship.
Dennis’ health never fully recovered. By 2020, he was suffering circulation problems in his feet. Doctors had warned Dennis that a couple toes will need to be amputated. Jackie, who was now living with Dennis, noted that his mental acuity was bad. He had buried guns in the ground on the ranch, for example. Then there was a fire in the kitchen Dennis caused by forgetting to turn off burner. The couple moved into the barndominium apartment in the backyard of the damaged house.
Meticulous with medical records, Jackie has documentation of Dennis’ condition by October 2020. He could barely walk, his gangrene was advanced in his feet, and what could be described as dementia was setting in. But Jackie said she covered for him as friends claimed that they noticed no problems with Dennis’ mental acuity. Dennis had the idea that if he could resurrect the glory days of CCI, his health would recover sooner. He rented an office in Executive Park and set forth to do so.
Jackie wasn’t so sure about resurrecting CCI and previously she had encouraged Dennis to focus his energy on a project to remodel the burned ranch house. Jackie had made the new house blueprints to compensate for her husband’s health problems. The hallways were designed to be wide with large doors to accommodate a wheel chair and there is a ramp heading up to the front door. The opposing goals of rebuilding CCI or renovating the ranch house had caused a conflict between the two.
At around this time, Jackie was diagnosed with cancer. Frequent chemotherapy and radiation treatments followed throughout the next year.
Construction was underway on the ranch house renovation on October 23, 2020 when Jackie said Dennis was driven up to the ranch with several men with pickup trucks and trailers. Apparently at Dennis’ direction, the men loaded up everything of value the Robisons owned, including all of the precious metals, while Jackie said she stood there in shock. As Dennis and the men drove away with the couple’s treasures, Jackie said she thought Dennis was having an episode that would soon pass and he’d come back with all of the items he took.
Except for a brief encounter when closing the sale of their Marble Falls house, Jackie never saw her husband again until days before his death on December 10, 2021, one year and 6 weeks after he left the ranch with the couples’ valuables. Jackie was tipped off that her husband was in the ICU unit at Shannon South. On December 4, 2021, Jackie made her way into Shannon and saw him in-between her cancer treatments. He was a vegetable with both legs amputated. Jackie said Dennis looked up at her and didn’t recognize her. Erin Gregg was in the room. Shannon security guards physically removed Jackie from the hospital after the brief visit claiming Jackie had no power of medical authority. Later, through medical records Jackie acquired, she learned that Dennis went into a fully altered mental state in May of 2021. He was kept alive by modern medicine.
That day was the final time Jackie saw her husband. Dennis died alone on December 10, 2021. The way Jackie learned of Dennis’ death was when Johnson’s Funeral Home called her to ask what she wanted to do with Dennis’ body.
This is only a synopsis of what happened to Jackie and Dennis Robison. A probate court filing made in Judge Ben Nolan’s County Court at Law #1 call fill in many of the blanks, at least from Jackie’s perspective.
Filed by Jackie and her attorney Kirk Hawkins, the court document describes what Jackie said happened to the valuables taken and how Dennis lived his final year and six weeks on earth. About $75,000 in tools were taken by Margarito Castaneda, the lawsuit stated, and have never been recovered. Guns an ammunition ended up at the CCI office on Executive Drive. The court filing claimed that after Erin Gregg facilitated the closing of CCI offices, those weapons and ammunition, along with about $50,000 in office furniture and equipment were stored on Martial Harrell’s land in Christoval where Jackie claimed the property was stored in an 18-wheeler trailer for 18 months. Much of it was ruined. The court filing claimed that many of the guns were given away by Erin.
The precious metals were stored in a large safe deposit box at Texas Bank, the document stated. Jackie produced eBay receipts showing that at least $15,000 of the coins were sold in various auctions until in December 2020 when eBay closed Dennis’ account, according to Jackie, because the voluminous transactions appeared suspicious. By the time Jackie was able to gain access to the safe deposit box in March 2022, only “one (1) of twelve (12) books of coins remain[ed],” the filing claimed.
On March 17, 2021, Dennis filed a petition for divorce. Jackie asserted that the divorce filing was used to separate her from her husband by Gregg. New power of attorney documents granted daughter Erin access to everything Dennis owned as well as granted her medical power of attorney. Jackie never saw her husband in divorce court and there never was a mediation to divide the community assets, to include the precious metals. Filings indicate that Dennis was too ill to attend.
The court filing claimed that weeks after Dennis’ death, in December 2021, Erin “removed all the personal property, documents, and records from the Decedent, Dennis Alfred Robinson’s apartment and secreted those from the Petitioner (Jackie).” This was in violation of the standing order for the divorce and an additional order from Judge Nolan’s probate court made a month later. The court filing demanded that Erin provide an accounting of all of the silver coins as well as Dennis’ bank accounts from September 2020 through May 2023 in addition to Erin and her husband’s bank accounts over the same time period.
The court filing also asked the question about Erin and her husbands new vehicles purchased in late 2021 and early 2022.
Erin is represented by attorney Jeffrey Lisson. Several months ago, we contacted Lisson for Erin’s side of the story. He pointed to court filings detailing how Jackie drove up to Lubbock and threw trash all over Erin’s yard. Jackie claimed that contained in the trash were empty coin boxes and etc. from Dennis’ estate. She was making a statement, Jackie said. She said she wanted Erin to know what she did to her! Nonetheless, the incident gained the attention of Judge Nolan who issued an injunction against Jackie.
From the initial glance at Jackie’s case, it looks like a divorce was used to separate Dennis from Jackie, a divorce Dennis hired and paid an attorney to execute. The question is, did Dennis have the mental capacity to file for divorce and reassign his powers of attorney to his formerly estranged daughter? All of these court filings were accepted by the Tom Green County judicial system and its attorneys at the time.
Jackie comes off as crazy and abrasive. I thought that too when I first met her. After listening to her story and inquiring about specifics I have a new opinion. She earned her degree in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering in 1979 from The University of Texas. She came to San Angelo to work for Ethicon as an engineer when she met and fell in love with Dennis.
When I first talked to her, she wasn’t focused on the money lost. Rather, she broke down and cried describing the circ*mstances of her final visit with Dennis at Shannon South in December 2021. Legless, and down to only 86 pounds, and with no recognition of her, her final memory of Dennis troubled her greatly and angered her. Other friends and acquaintances I have interviewed expressed the same opinion.
Jackie is on a mission to get justice for herself and her husband and she’s dangerous because she’s smart. With an engineering background, Jackie is organized and has accomplished her research. She wants her day in court.
Proving how much value of precious metals were in the couples’ possession at the time of Dennis’ departure in October 2020 will be difficult. The man who transported the valuables to the safe deposit box said he did not believe there was $750,000 in gold and silver in the box. Yet, Jackie can produce a spreadsheet of the precious metals along with receipts.
Sheriff Nick Hanna looked into the taking of the community assets on October 23, 2020 from the Robison ranch. In investigative interviews with all of the men involved, all indicated to the investigator that they believed Dennis was in control, and they were acting on his behalf. The sheriff investigated the actions by a district judge on the divorce case and found nothing improper. Finally, the sheriff investigated the Gregg power of attorney where Jackie claimed to the sheriff were made with forged documents.
“All three allegations were found to be devoid of any criminal activity and this case has been closed,” Sheriff’s Deputy Sergeant Nicholas Hammer wrote concluding the investigation.
Jackie is motivated by hurt. She was hurt badly either because Dennis himself decided to leave her at the end of his life or worse, he was manipulated to leave by an estranged daughter for financial gain using a typical marital conflict between a married couple that drove wedge between them.
As for the new 300z and F-150 pickup truck Erin and her husband bought or acquired in 2021 and early 2022, Lisson was emphatic. Two working professionals can certainly afford to purchase their own vehicles, Lisson said.
Lisson and Gregg want their day in court, too. The question is, as this probate case and the divorce case prior to Dennis’ death have languished in the Tom Green County judicial system for years, will Judge Ben Nolan schedule a speedy hearing?
The full interview with Jackie Chesnutt Robison will air on the LIVE! Daily News Show on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at 4:30 p.m. You can catch the live stream on the San Angelo LIVE! Facebook page, Youtube page, Twitter, Rumble, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify Podcasts.
Lisson or his client are invited to interview on our show too.
