Investigation: Home warranty company sent convicted felon to Chesapeake home
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — When 10 On Your Side ran a story earlier this month about a woman charged with conspiracy to commit murder, Rob and Kelly Rogers saw someone they knew.
Hitman or repairman? Woman denies being part of murder-for-hire plot from Chesapeake jail
Amanda Deese, 49, had been to their Deep Creek home last winter. Ten years before that, she had been convicted of embezzlement.
Last December, they trusted Deese and their home warranty company that sent her out to remodel their bathroom. And then they learned all of that trust was misplaced.
First, the current charges.
Deese spoke with us from jail earlier this month, charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Police say she was part of a plot with inmate Brian Askew to kill a witness who was against him.
As 10 On Your Side reported, Chesapeake police arrested her late last month and said she was waiting with a gun in her truck to pick up the would-be hitman, whom Askew had recruited from behind bars.
Kelly Rogers saw that story.
“It made me physically ill,” she said. “But hearing that and then seeing murder-for-hire was just very scary.”
The couple had been faithful customers of Select Home Warranty until last week. Select sent out Deese for their bathroom remodel last winter, more than 10 years after Deese was convicted in federal court of felony embezzlement. She stole more than $200,000 from a previous employer.
Rob and Kelly Rogers said the home warranty company’s background checks are completely inadequate.
“Either they didn’t do anything, or they don’t care,” Rob Rogers said. “Neither answer’s acceptable.”
The couple didn’t realize they were handing over $6,500 of their hard-earned money to an embezzler, and they said Deese was evasive when they had asked her for credentials. According to its website, Select Home Warranty requires its contractors to be licensed.
“[Deese] assured me, ‘Oh no, not a problem,'” Kelly Rogers said. “License and bonded, insured, everything’s good, but she never would provide it for me. Kept giving me excuses.”
“It’s shocking to discover that they are not licensed,” Rob Rogers said. “That’s bad enough. But then to add that they’re a convicted felon, and they’re sending her to your home.”
Pretty soon the subcontractor Deese had hired told Kelly Rogers that he couldn’t get paid – because Deese was claiming that the customer hadn’t paid her. But she had paid Deese.
“I showed [the subcontractor], this is my receipt, I gave her $6,500,” Kelly Rogers said. “She’s got a lot of money to pay you.”
The master bath was torn out, but then the work stopped. The couple took Deese to court and was awarded a judgment against her. They hadn’t seen her for several months until our report on charges of murder for hire and possession of a gun by a convicted felon.
Back to the home warranty company.
“When you pay six-and-a half-thousand dollars to an unlicensed fraudulent contractor that was sent by the warranty company to your house,” Rob Rogers said, “you kind of expected basic customer service for them to make this right.”
The couple hired another contractor to finish the work, costing them an additional $5,000.
They’re done recommending Select to people shopping for a home warranty.
“There are other warranty companies out there who won’t send fraudulent murder-for-hire people to your home,” Rob Rogers said. “Choose one of them. Any one of them.”
Kelly Rogers said Select tried to keep them as a customer.
“What were they gonna do, send us another felon,” Kelly Rogers said.
Deese told us from jail she was only picking up the hitman to take him to a carpentry job, despite the gun with the extended magazine police said they found in her pickup.
Despite the experience of the Rogerses, Select Home Warranty scores highly in national rankings by U.S. News and World Report of similar firms.
10 On Your Side made repeated attempts by phone and email to find out why Select would have a convicted felon on its roster of approved contractor providers. A representative said a supervisor would respond, but the company has yet to do so.
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