A home-improvement contractor who bilked 13 elderly people out of thousands of dollars was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison.
Ramon Chavez, 59, showed no remorse during the hearing, complaining that weather and money he never received from various sources were the causes of the construction delays.
Five of the 13 victims told of how they paid Chavez upfront but were never repaid for work he never started or only partially completed.
Prosecutor Ken Laff said the prison sentence, plus Egelhoff’s order that Chavez pay restitution of $42,202, sent a message.
“This is not a low-risk crime (for the offender),” Laff said. “People treat this as an invasion of their home. They don’t take it lightly, and we don’t either.”
Henry Dunlap said he paid Chavez $4,800 for work that was either not completed or never started.
He said he contacted Chavez numerous times, and the excuses he got from Chavez were that “it’s too hot, it’s too cold, it’s going to rain, his truck is broken.”
Eventually, Chavez stopped answering the phone.
“There have been a number of us taken for a lot of money,” Dunlap told the judge.
