SAN ANTONITO — The Bexar County District’s Office has sent two men to prison for stealing up to $600,000 from victims with a roofing scam.
ABC-affiliated KSAT-TV reports that Mark Anthony Rodriguez, 45, pleaded guilty on Monday to theft with a repeat offender enhancement and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was first arrested on Nov. 4, 2016 for theft.
Richard Stevens, 54, pleaded guilty to theft and was also sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The two men owned Durizon Roofing & Construction, which in 2015 and 2016 took money for roof repairs but never completed the jobs. The district attorney’s office reports many of the victims were seniors.
“These defendants preyed on some of our most vulnerable residents, people who trusted the men who promised to repair hail-damaged roofs and paid thousands of dollars only to be left with roofs in disrepair,” District Attorney Joe Gonzales said.
On the Better Business Bureau website, one complaint from March 8, 2017 states the company “never performed repairs” after cashing a check for $2,923.32 for a down payment.
Rodriguez, who was previously convicted in a murder-for-hire plot in the 1990s, faces parole revocation for that charge. According to prosecutors, he and his bother paid a man to kill Rodriguez’s wife, who was gunned down in 1992.
Stevens previously pleaded guilty in 2017 to mail fraud aiding and abetting to settle charges related to a “foreclosure rescue scheme.” He will have to serve 41 months in federal prison following his sentencing for theft and must pay $270,134 in restitution.