The owner of a window replacement company has avoided jail time but must pay more than $11,000 in restitution as part of a plea agreement with Bexar County prosecutors approved last week.
James Hunter Townsend, 37, was sentenced to three years probation after pleading no contest to felony theft, a Bexar County District Clerk official confirmed Friday.
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Townsend must also pay $11,244 in restitution as part of the agreement, the official confirmed to KSAT.
Townsend, the owner of Republic of Texas Window Company, had been accused of accepting deposits from more than 20 customers in San Antonio and surrounding communities before abruptly shuttering his business just over two years ago.
Multiple criminal complaints were filed by customers against Townsend with law enforcement agencies in several counties and the Texas Attorney General’s Office beginning in May 2022, records show.
KSAT Investigates in June 2022 revealed that Townsend’s business locations and Schertz home were vacant.
Townsend told KSAT at the time that he had left town because of threats made by customers of his company.
A Bexar County grand jury in November indicted Townsend for felony theft with a repeat offender enhancement, since he had previous felony convictions in Texas for forgery and theft, records show.
Townsend was arrested in Kendall County in late January on the Bexar County theft warrant, booking records show.
He pleaded no contest in the case May 30.
KSAT could find no record that Townsend has been formally charged in any of the other jurisdictions where criminal complaints were filed.
Phone calls to Townsend’s listed attorney repeatedly went to voicemail Friday.
History of theft, forgery, felony family violence
Townsend has a significant criminal history in Texas.
Customers who spoke with KSAT Investigates said they were unaware of his past run-ins with the law, which include arrests for criminal mischief and misdemeanor theft of property.
Townsend was convicted of felony property theft in Cameron County in April 2010, Texas Department of Public Safety records show.
Townsend was convicted of felony forgery in August 2011 in Nueces County, records show.
Months later, in December 2011, Townsend was again convicted of a felony in Cameron County, this time for the offense of assaulting a family member twice within 12 months.
He was sentenced to serve two years, court records show.
Townsend was convicted of felony property theft in Travis County in late 2013, records show.
Asked via text by KSAT in the summer of 2022 where Townsend disappeared to, he wrote back at the time, “I left town because of threats made to myself and my wife because of the situation we are in. We did not want a discruntled (sic) costomer (sic) to possibly scare our children at home.”
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
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