Gail Gregory

Gail Gregory moved into a retirement home two years ago. She enjoyed having her own apartment and meeting new people. Her adult children met her boyfriend, fellow resident Jewel Braziel, and were initially impressed. They saw him help bring in her groceries or clean up around the apartment. "He came off like he was a good guy," Gregory's daughter Moniqua Gregory said in an interview Tuesday. But "he was a con artist in front of us." In recent months, their mom confided that the couple was arguing and that Braziel was a jealous man. When Gail Gregory had a broken jaw and ribs a month ago, she told her kids she had fallen. "But she didn't fall," the daughter said she since learned. "He hit her." On Sunday, Gregory's family got horrific news. Gail Gregory, 66, was beaten to death inside her apartment. Braziel, 74, is charged with second-degree murder in the case. Prosecutors say he struck Gregory repeatedly in the face. Gregory lived one floor below Braziel at St. Andrews of Jennings, 9600 Halls Ferry Road. Neighbors at the complex told police they had heard arguing all night long. Braziel called 911 himself about 5 a.m. Sunday, to report that she was unresponsive. He refused to perform CPR while on the phone with a dispatcher, court records allege. Gregory was discovered unconscious in her room, battered in the face. She died at a hospital. Two of Gregory's adult children who spoke to a Post-Dispatch reporter Tuesday said they are livid the complex does not have security. Visitors have to call a tenant and be let into the building. Her apartment had a single pull cord that alerts front desk staff in an emergency, her family said. But the cord in her bedroom wouldn't help, they say, if the attack was elsewhere in her apartment. There is no security guard in the building to hear the quarrel that turned deadly, said Gail Gregory's son, Antwon Gregory of St. Louis. "It could have made a difference," he said. "A security guard could have saved her life." A woman who answered at the retirement home Tuesday had no comment but said she would pass a reporter's message on to a supervisor. Moniqua Gregory, of Granite City, said her mother had two daughters, three sons, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "She was a beautiful soul, a beautiful person," Moniqua Gregory said. "My whole family is so hurt." Gail Gregory worked at a diaper service for more than 20 years. She moved into St. Andrews after two relatives moved there, but was happy to have her own space. "It was her first apartment for a long time," her daughter said. "She liked it." Lately, her mother complained about the way she and Braziel argued. "But she never said he hit her," the daughter said.