Roommate in Jail, Refuses to Pay for Utilties

[renusmc11]

My question involves a roommate in the State of: Florida

Okay so here is my story.

I currently have a roommate who is in jail. I am in Afghanistan. Here is the background.
I know I made a stupid mistake and will not do so ever again. My room mate used to be in the Marine Corps and we remained friends throughout the years and his parents kicked him out of the house. I had always told him he had a place to stay so he came down to Florida. We BOTH signed a lease with the landlord and have been splitting everything 50/50. I could have opted out of the lease because I was deploying and left him there to pay everything for 6 months but I didn’t and I am kicking myself in the butt for not doing so. Anyways room mate has been addicted to cold medicine for about 7 years now. He has been arrested 4 times in the past 5 months and is now in jail on a felony conviction for committing the same crime three times. My brother has been living at my house to watch my three dogs and all of my things and I have been paying my half of everything. All bills are in my name because my room mate is irresponsible and had horrible credit and could not open up any accounts. He has wrecked my house. My brother went back home for two weeks over the holidays and my roomie got high and drunk for 14 days straight and let his dog use my house as a giant bathroom. I have had to put a new lock on the door to my room to keep him from gaining access to my room while my brother is not home.
He is literally the room mate from hell. I am just providing you with a fraction of the background. Anyways he is in jail and says that he will pay for half the rent but NOT for any utilities. He thinks because he is in jail he doesn’t need to pay for his share. He has been paying in arrears for the entire time because when he 1st moved down he had no money, so he would pay at the beginning of the month for the PREVIOUS months rent and now like I said he thinks he doesn’t have to pay utilities. The cable bill is 128 dollars whether the TV is turned on or not each day.
My brother has been babysitting my room mate because he is a worthless drug addict and does nothing but blame everyone else. I am going to take him to small claims court when I get back. Do I have a case?

[Mr. Knowitall]

By 'cold medicine' I assume you mean dextromethorphan - that stuff is not only highly addictive, when chronically abused it causes brain damage.

Have your brother talk to your landlord about options to keep him out of the unit when he gets out of jail. If he's on the lease and won't agree to surrender his tenancy it is likely going to be tricky and require litigation. Perhaps he'll agree to surrender his continuing tenancy if you agree to waive some of your claims against him; that may be worth it.

I hate to say it but you have a better chance of getting blood from a turnip than you do of getting an active, unemployed, in-and-out of jail drug addict to pay a small claims court judgment.

[renusmc11]

By 'cold medicine' I assume you mean dextromethorphan - that stuff is not only highly addictive, when chronically abused it causes brain damage.

Have your brother talk to your landlord about options to keep him out of the unit when he gets out of jail. If he's on the lease and won't agree to surrender his tenancy it is likely going to be tricky and require litigation. Perhaps he'll agree to surrender his continuing tenancy if you agree to waive some of your claims against him; that may be worth it.

I hate to say it but you have a better chance of getting blood from a turnip than you do of getting an active, unemployed, in-and-out of jail drug addict to pay a small claims court judgment.

Thank you very much for your response and yes it is def DXM. He abuses coricidin cold and cough and whatever other drugs has DXM in it.

Ok and this is where I will apologize for not including more detail in the situation. He is a 100 percent disabled veteran. He was high and drunk one more before a run, passed out and smashed his head on a fire hydrant and now has traumatic brain injury and also claims to have PTSD. He gets about 2800 a month, so he does get paid and have money. He's already pretty stupid and the DXM has made him out to be a complete moron. He has his trial on the 7th of April and will get his sentencing. He pleaded not guilty again and they have him on tape, ridiculous.

He does make money, more money that I do and I am on active duty and have been in for 7 years. I will be heading home within the next 20 days or so and I am not a nice person when it comes to him.