SAN ANTONIO – A convicted thief who has spent parts of the past 12 years in jail is accused of accepting money for deck repairs before abandoning the project, leaving a San Antonio couple with a backyard safety hazard.
Jessie Pyles, a disabled Army veteran, and his wife Caroline Born hired Carlos Elizondo in February to repair and refinish their back patio. The $1,800 project called for Elizondo to flip over and refinish usable boards, replace damaged ones, and build new steps.
Instead, Pyles said, Elizondo collected payments before disappearing from the job at their North Side home this spring.
“There’s screws sticking up,” Pyles said, describing the unfinished deck and the hazards left behind.
The couple said they were unaware of Elizondo’s criminal history when they hired him.
“I typed in his name and it autofilled to San Antonio, and it brought up all your news reports,” Pyles said.
A Pattern of Complaints
In one case, Shantel Brown said she paid Elizondo more than $5,000 toward a deck and patio-covering project at her Converse home in 2024. She said the work remained far from finished months later and that she ultimately hired another contractor to correct the work that had been done.
In Canyon Lake, Diane Michelle Brosnan said she paid Elizondo $3,400 toward a $6,600 project involving decks and a metal covering. She said he tore down her existing back deck, completed only a fraction of the work, and eventually abandoned the project.
Diane Michelle Brosnan shows a loose post installed by Carlos Elizondo outside her Canyon Lake home. (KSAT)
Carlos Elizondo. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
The complaints have come from homeowners in multiple jurisdictions, including Bexar, Comal, and Hays counties.
A Convicted Felon on Probation
In 2017, a Bexar County judge sentenced Elizondo to four years in jail after prosecutors sought to revoke his probation on previous theft convictions.
Elizondo later returned to contracting, despite statements made by his attorneys during court proceedings that he would no longer work in that career field.
