A sign that reads “Vaccinations Equal Annihilation” is seen April 9 on John Joe Gray’s property near Trinidad, Texas. For the past decade, John Joe Gray has holed up with relatives on his rural East Texas land while waiting for a siege that’s never happened.

Gun Barrel City, Texas ? The past decade has taken a toll on John Joe Gray, holed up on his rural East Texas land while waiting for a siege that’s never happened.

He’s been living on 47 acres behind a fence without running water and electricity but with plenty of guns, daring authorities to arrest him for a 10-year-old, third-degree felony warrant. He says he hasn’t left his property since 2000, all the while allowing his distrust of a government he views as evil to fester.

The handmade warning signs have faded and the hordes of fellow militia members have long since gone, leaving behind only Gray and some relatives — he won’t say how many — on the tree-shaded property along a river in rural Henderson County, about 50 miles southeast of Dallas. They grow their own food and live in a shack and trailer — always wearing holsters with weapons. They don’t guard the entrance anymore.

Gray is thin and pale with a long, graying beard flowing down from his gaunt face — almost unrecognizable from photos taken in 2000 showing his short, dark hair and a mustache.

“I’ll never leave,” Gray told The Associated Press recently, wearing a holster that sheathed a knife on one side and gun on the other. “I don’t feel like a prisoner … because I’m living out here and following God’s laws.”

Gray, now in his early 60s, had worked in construction and led a Texas militia group that often trained on the isolated property where he lived for about 15 years before the so-called standoff.

In late 1999 Gray was in a car pulled over for speeding in nearby Anderson County. State troopers saw high-powered rifles and anti-government materials in the car, but Gray refused to get out. When the troopers tried to remove him from the car, he allegedly bit one trooper’s hand and tried to grab his gun.

After his arrest Gray showed up in court for a bail hearing, when Anderson County District Attorney Doug Lowe told the judge he feared Gray was a major threat because troopers found diagrams of plans to blow up a Dallas overpass.

“I wanted the judge to know what he was possibly thinking,” Lowe said.

But Gray posted bond and left, never showing up again in court. Gray then sent a handwritten letter on dusty notebook paper telling authorities that they’d “better bring plenty of body bags” if they stormed his compound, said Gary Thomas, a former investigator for Anderson County prosecutors.

That never happened. Authorities in Henderson County didn’t want to risk a gun battle that likely would have killed officers or children on the compound, said Sheriff Ray Nutt, the third sheriff in office since 2000. If Gray is ever spotted driving in town or seen at a business, however, he will be arrested, Nutt said.

Gray hasn’t paid property taxes since 1995. The county has sued him for $12,700 in back taxes and interest penalties. But Nutt said it’s too dangerous for deputies to serve notice of the suit filed in 2008, and until that happens, the case cannot proceed. “Our hands are tied,” said Anna Marie Fontana, a legal assistant with McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen, the law firm that filed the suit for Henderson County.

Lowe said because Gray had already been indicted on the charges of assaulting an officer and trying to take his weapon, there’s no statute of limitations on prosecuting him.

“Effectively he’s been under self-imposed house arrest for the past 10 years, and the maximum sentence for his charges was 10 years,” the prosecutor said. “It calls into question why we didn’t make an attempt to resolve this, but some people have such a distrust of the government that they’re willing to sacrifice themselves and their families by living like that.”