Boats left for repair disappeared, deputies say. A Palmetto man faces charges
A Palmetto man faces felony charges after he allegedly scammed Manatee County residents out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to court documents.
J. Ventura Castillo-Trujillo, 47, previously owned a boat repair company, Aqua Tech Boat Works, at 608 17th St. E. in Palmetto.
In three separate criminal cases, former customers accuse Castillo-Trujillo of stealing from them after he agreed to repair their boats. The customers said Castillo-Trujillo kept boats for years without completing the work, in some cases stripping them of valuable parts or failing to return them entirely.
In two other cases, Manatee County residents accused Castillo-Trujillo of taking thousands for home repair and property buying services that were never provided, court records show. A judge found Castillo-Trujillo liable in the property buying case, a civil lawsuit, in July.
The criminal cases remain open, and Castillo-Trujillo faces multiple felony counts of grand theft.
An attorney representing Castillo-Trujillo did not respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.
Missing boat found in Palmetto man’s backyard, court records say
In one criminal case, Castillo-Trujillo is charged with second-degree grand theft after a customer said he scammed them out of $100,000 and stripped their boat of several devices, according to court documents.
According to court records, a customer brought their boat and trailer to Castillo-Trujillo’s shop for “major repairs and improvements,” but after several years of “on again, off again” work, the boat was never repaired and the owner requested their boat be returned, according to court documents.
The customer was forced to report their boat missing to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office after half a year of dodged requests and appointments to return the boat, in which Castillo-Trujillo didn’t show, according to deputies.
After reporting the boat missing, the owner went to Castillo-Trujillo’s house and found the boat in the business owner’s backyard, stripped of its rod holders, several electronics and its motor, which was sitting on Castillo-Trujillo’s deck, according to the sheriff’s office.
The missing items were not within the scope of the repair, and Castillo-Trujillo was not permitted to keep them, a court document noted.
Palmetto man accused of boat repair scam
The sheriff’s office has conducted similar investigations into Castillo-Trujillo in the past.
In another court case, charging Castillo-Trujillo with second-degree grand theft and third-degree grand theft of a motor vehicle, a customer dropped their boat off at Castillo-Trujillo’s business for repairs. Castillo-Trujillo then kept their boat for over three years, eventually cutting off contact with the boat owner, court records say. The owner then reported his boat missing to the sheriff’s office, according to deputies.
A third court case charges Castillo-Trujillo with third-degree grand theft.
Another customer took their boat, which they had modified with “high-value items,” to Castillo-Trujillo’s residence to “have the boat extended and refinished,” according to court documents. The boat owner paid Castillo-Trujillo nearly $37,000 for the repairs — but about three and a half years after initially bringing the boat to Castillo-Trujillo, the owner was notified that Castillo-Trujillo had been evicted from his place of business, according to the sheriff’s office.
Castillo-Trujillo contacted the owner to request that they retrieve the boat, but when they arrived to collect it, the expensive devices the owner had previously installed on the boat were missing, according to court records.
When asked about the missing items, Castillo-Trujillo claimed he could not find them, attempted to give the owner what was “believed to be another customer’s trim tabs and GPS,” and “laughed” at the owner when they expressed the “poor position” they were put in, according to court documents.
“The estimated value of the items missing from the boat that were not to be removed as part of the repair process were estimated to cost upwards of $10,000,” court documents said.
Residents accuse Palmetto man of additional scams
In an unrelated case, Castillo-Trujillo faces another felony grand theft charge for allegedly receiving payment from a Palmetto resident for home repairs that were never completed. The homeowner did not recover any of the approximately $23,000 that Castillo-Trujillo collected, court records say.
After a man filed a civil lawsuit in May alleging that the business owner scammed him out of $50,000 in a property buying scheme, a judge ordered Castillo-Trujillo to pay the man $150,000.
Letter claims Palmetto man missed court due to kidnapping
In one of the cases tied to Castillo-Trujillo boat repair business, his wife, Monica Rico, submitted a letter to the judge requesting that his court hearing be rescheduled.
In the August letter, she requested that his court hearing be rescheduled because he was “kidnapped” in Mexico and is “being held by unknown assailants.”
“I am worried about him, if he’s still alive,” his wife wrote in the court document.
However, records from one of Castillo-Trujillo’s other criminal cases show that law enforcement located him several weeks later in Hillsborough County and arrested him.
Castillo-Trujillo is expected to appear in court again on April 15.
