On Your Side Investigation: Bolivar, Mo. contractor sentenced to prison in Oklahoma

(KY3) - A Bolivar business owner is now behind bars in Oklahoma.

We started telling you about Jerry Shane Fellers with Build Tech Structures more than a year ago.

His company builds pole barns. Dozens of customers told us they paid thousands. Many waited months and nothing. Others got what they call shoddy work.

Following our investigation, the Missouri Attorney filed more than a dozen felony charges of deceptive business practices. At the time, Fellers was on probation for similar charges in Oklahoma. District Attorneys there filed a motion to revoke his probation.

Fellers agreed there was enough evidence against him. He entered an Alford plea.

Fellers is now an inmate in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. He’s serving time for embezzlement, bogus checks, and uttering forged instruments.

In March 2021, Chad Porter gave him more than five thousand dollars to build a pole barn in Rogersville.

“It’s good news because they are starting to move the wheels and make some progress. Even though it’s not in Missouri yet, they are starting to see what’s happening and hold him accountable in Oklahoma,” said Porter.

In Porter’s case, Fellers never started the job. The Webster County Prosecutor charged Fellers. This week, Porter got his money back. Porter says he knows he is lucky. Many might never be square.

Fellers is sentenced to ten years in prison in Oklahoma. The Assistant District Attorney tells On Your Side it’s unlikely he’ll serve the full amount because these are nonviolent crimes.

Porter says he and other customers want more than just their money back.

“Seeing it to that he can never do business again and that he spends his jail time and is held accountable for what he did,” said Porter.

Fellers is scheduled to be back in court next month on those pending Missouri charges. The Missouri Attorney General is asking the judge if he can be brought in from Oklahoma to appear at the hearing.

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