\u201cI hope in his \u2018time out\u2019 he\u2019s able to see what he did,\u201d Deloris Hilliard said after Jason Wallace was convicted for stealing more than $70,000. <\/p>\n
TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 When a Hillsborough County judge sentenced Jason Wallace<\/a> of Pasco County to more than five years in prison, Deloris Hilliard called it \u201cjustice,\u201d but his court apology to her was not enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do not accept his apology\u2026 because like I said, he didn’t show [it]. Action speaks louder than words,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wallace, who pleaded guilty to charges for unlicensed contracting and stealing from someone 65 years or older, owes Hilliard more than $70,000 for construction jobs he never completed.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: Homeowners say Pasco man took thousands, left construction jobs unfinished<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHow we used the bathroom, Mr. Wallace. We took a bucket and we used it,\u201d Hilliard said during her impact statement she made during the sentencing. \u201cWe dug a hole, Mr. Wallace.”<\/p>\n Hilliard was one of several people who reached out to 10 Investigates claiming to have problems with Wallace.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were out of the house for 16 months,\u201d said Jerome Johnson of New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: ‘He’s a coward.’ Unlicensed Pasco contractor convicted, now faces trial in separate case<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was pretty much left with no floors, nothing in my kitchen,\u201d said Benissa Smallwood of Pasco County, where Wallace was convicted of unlicensed contracting charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n During his sentencing for charges in Hillsborough County, Wallace told the judge he could not finish the jobs because the work cost more than what the Hilliards could pay.<\/p>\n \u201cMy intention is not to put you and your husband in this situation. That was not my intention,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when we kept on moving on and the money wasn’t there to do it, it was hard for me. I didn’t have it. I really didn’t have it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n The judge reminded Wallace he did plead guilty and was supposed to pay restitution. However, Hilliard and her husband said they have seen nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI hope in his \u2018time out\u2019 he\u2019s able to see what he did,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Upon release, Wallace will still have to pay more than $80,000 in restitution in Hilliard\u2019s case and another in Hillsborough County. He must also pay more than $160,000 in two more Pasco County cases. He will also be on probation for three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts say to always make sure a contractor is licensed before hiring. Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation has an online search tool<\/a> to look up contractors by name, license number, geographic location or license type.\u00a0<\/p>\n Emerald Morrow is an investigative reporter with\u00a010 Tampa Bay News. Like her on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>. You can also email her at\u00a0emorrow@10tampabay.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI hope in his \u2018time out\u2019 he\u2019s able to see what he did,\u201d Deloris Hilliard said after Jason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-355743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}