Two contractors from Maryland are facing numerous charges after billing a Newark-area woman nearly $300,000 to rebuild her fire-damaged house but never completing the work, court records indicate.
Dinetta Kerfoot, 57, and her husband, Thomas Kerfoot, 49, both of Bel Air, Md., owned a company called Cornerstone Restoration. In December 2022, they entered a contract to rebuild a house on Old Baltimore Pike that had been heavily damaged by a fire, according to Delaware State Police.
The homeowner gave them a check for $87,000 as a deposit, according to court records.
By April 2023, progress had stalled and the Kerfoots were not returning calls, according to court documents. The homeowner's niece was finally able to meet with Thomas Kerfoot and intended to fire him.
Kerfoot explained that the delay was because he was attending the trial of a man accused of killing his son. He explained he “needed this job and would begin to make things right,” court records indicate.
( Public records confirm that Kerfoot's 17-year-old son was fatally stabbed in 2021 by a man he had lured to a house by pretending to be a teen girl on Snapchat. The man was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter.)
The niece felt sorry for the Kerfoots and agreed to let them stay on the job. The homeowner later made more payments to the Kerfoots for a total expenditure of $298,000, and the Kerfoots promised the work would be done by September 2023.
Over the ensuing months, little to no progress was made, and it appeared that Cornerstone Restoration was no longer in business. The niece finally called state police in April 2024.
Troopers determined that some exterior work had been done, including the roof, siding and windows, but inside, only the framing was done. The work done by the Kerfoots had garnered the most code violations of any property in New Castle County history, according to court records.
Troopers also learned that three subcontractors the Kerfoots hired had not been paid for the work they did on the house.
Police obtained arrest warrants for the Kerfoots, who turned themselves in July 30. They were both charged with home improvement fraud, theft of services, theft by false promise and conspiracy. They were both released on $76,000 unsecured bond.
Cornerstone Restoration's website has been taken down, but an archived version indicates the company was founded in 2017 and specialized in fire restoration, water and smoke mitigation and cleaning services.
Maryland court records show that, since 2022, the company has been sued more than a dozen times for breach of contract, failure to pay rent and similar claims. In March, a credit union won a $255,000 judgement against the company.
“It was apparent the business/suspects were living in debt and were unable to control their spending,” state troopers wrote in their arrest warrant.
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