By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Nov. 3 — Following nearly seven hours of deliberation on Friday, a circuit court jury brought a five-day trial to a close by returning a verdict of guilty on 94 felonies against a husband and wife who operated a roofing business near Stanley.
Allan Wayne Knott and Sabrina Gale Knott, owners and operators of Knott’s Roofing, originally faced 256 indictments — 128 each — issued by a grand jury in March. However, the pool of victims was narrowed down from 32 to 24 by the time the trial started on Oct. 30. The Knotts were found guilty of receiving about $91,000 in deposits from those 24 victims (mostly in 2020) for work that never got started.
The couple was charged with 23 additional felony counts related to construction fraud in Rockingham County earlier this year as well. They now await sentencing in Page County on Valentine’s Day — Feb. 14, 2024.
Following a full day of jury selection on Monday, the commonwealth presented 27 witnesses on Tuesday and Wednesday to build a case against the Knotts showing a pattern of poor business practices, numerous cash withdrawals, lavish personal purchases, and a lack of communication with customers. The 117 exhibits submitted by the prosecution consisted mostly of financial records, including a large, oversized chart tracking multiple bank accounts held by the Knotts that sat in front of the jury for two days.
Commonwealth Attorney Bryan Cave walked through those financial records showing deposits received by the Knotts from the 24 victims with Howard Mulholland, a senior financial investigator with the state attorney general’s office. As the prosecutor reviewed each transaction with the state investigator, he attempted to show that:
- There were no records of the deposits being used to purchase materials or make payments to vendors related to that job;
- There were sporadic payments to employees during that time;
- There were cash withdrawals made by the Knotts from the deposit with no record of how the money was spent;
- There were checks written from Allen and Sabrina Knott to Allen and Sabrina Knott during this time;
- One payment made through a loan check was cashed and never deposited in the business account;
- The amounts required for deposits (from clients) climbed dramatically in 2020.
Kay Leake was asked to put $8,000 down on a $12,000 quote for a new metal roof to replace her failing shingles. Allen Knott showed up at her house the day after she called to deliver a quote, she testified, “and he seemed excited to get the job and do it right away.” Shirley Weakley put $9,000 down on a $13,000 quote to go from shingles to metal, but — just like all the others who testified — she received a litany of excuses as to why the work was delayed and told that she was “on the list.”
“I was a contractor for years, and I never heard of so much [being required] down,” testified Roy Campbell, who paid $6,000 up front for a $8,500 job. The elderly man who used a cane to get to the witness stand, also testified — like many others — that Knott’s had previously done great work for people they knew.
“He had a good reputation and he had my respect,” Campbell said on the stand during cross examination by the defense. “He did a beautiful job and right on time [at my son’s house next door].”
With a ninth grade education and experience gained working for his father, Allen Knight, 47, launched his own roofing business in 2001. The following year he married Sabrina, and she became involved in the family business — starting off in a number of roles including laborer (up on the roof), and eventually handling the bookkeeping with no formal training in finance of business management.
Defense attorney A. Hunter Jackson of Harrisonburg represented Sabrina and tried to show a pattern of poor business practices that began to lead to the Knott’s financial downfall. The local roofing business built up a debt with a creditor (supplier) totaling more than $240,000 that they began to get behind on in 2019. The Knotts made bulk payments to catch up for a while, but those payments, Sabrina testified, went toward older debt rather than newer debt. That “newer debt” began accruing interest at a rapid rate.
“It just blew up,” Sabrina stated.
Once they were behind on payments and interest was steadily accruing, the supplier froze their line of credit, forcing all future purchases to be made in cash — thus forcing the need to cash checks in order to continue doing business.
“If you have a freeze on your account, you can’t work,” Sabrina said. “We were doing the best we can.”
Harrisonburg attorney, Joseph P. Hopson, who represented Allen, tried to show others reasons why the Knotts couldn’t work during 2020, including a high amount of days with rain, bouts with COVID (among the Knotts and employees), a surgery Allen underwent, and staffing and supply chain issues that spread in the wake of the pandemic.
“I knew there were some people who were getting impatient,” Allen testified.
However, the defense also noted that the Knotts were completing jobs in 2020 — between 60 and 70, according to testimony — and trying to prevent bankruptcy. Allen testified that he never intended to file for bankruptcy, and that he did intend to complete the jobs he took deposits on. Yet, he said a search warrant executed by the Page County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 16, 2021, prevented him from doing any further business after the confiscation of cell phones, computers and files from both his home and office.
“We had no way to reach out to our clients,” Allen stated on the stand, “and we were instructed not to reach out to any of these clients while this investigation was goin on.”
In order to show intent, the commonwealth entered text messages into evidence that Allen sent to Sabrina while he was being interviewed by Megan Morris, a former investigator with the Page County Sheriff’s Office who was the lead case agent. She is now employed with Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, and traveled from Louisiana to participate in last week’s trial.
“They got me,” one message read. “I believe they are going to lock me up…It ain’t good.”
“If you’re gotta lie, lie big and lie good,” read another. “Let God judge me for it.”
Allen testified that the “lie” he referred to was in reference to the rumors circulating in the community about his business, despite the real struggles he and his wife were facing. He also testified that the other comments were simply addressing the fact that he was being questioned, and not an admission of guilt.
In his closing argument, the commonwealth attorney stated that both the “actions and inactions” of the Knotts showed their guilt — both their lack of communication with clients, and the purchase of a $4,200 French bulldog pup during a time of dire financial straits. Cave argued that Allen Knott was “Johnny on the spot when they called” for a quote, which then lead to a cash deposit — but slow to work…unless the client could cause problems. Testimony showed the Knotts completed jobs for Reed & Reed attorneys at law and the Page County Sheriff’s Office.
“The best I can guess is these were people they were afraid of,” Cave said in his closing.
He stated that a good reputation was “hard to get and easy to destroy,” noting that Knott’s Roofing had a good reputation for 18 years until financial hardships began creeping in. The commonwealth argued that the evidence showed a pattern of taking money from clients without any signs of efforts to move forward, or even prepare for, those jobs. Cave repeated several times, “If you gotta lie, lie big.”
The defense argued that the prosecution had not proven intent, and that their clients were simply bad at business and ran up against a litany of hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It may be poorly run, but that doesn’t mean they did not work [during that time] or that they were fraudulent,” Hopson said. “That’s not a crime…[the prosecution] acts like COVID didn’t happen…they had a skeleton crew, materials were delayed…they were working; they were doing jobs. They just got behind… A business failing is not a crime.”
The defense also said the commonwealth’s portrayal of the Knotts living a “lavish lifestyle” — such as a text message about going to a monster truck show in Pennsylvania — was a “false representation,” given the fact that they were in debt for their home and personal vehicles, as well as the additional business debt. They acknowledged that their clients were “bad at managing money since 2018” and blamed the investigation launched by the sheriff’s office for “shutting the business down” so that no further debt could be paid. Up to that point, they argued, their clients had every intention to complete jobs and continue paying off debt. The Knotts had considered selling off equipment and other assets to avoid bankruptcy, but eventually ended up filing an application after their phones, computers and files were seized.
“I think the thing that crushed the commonwealth’s case is that they were still working,” Jackson told the jury.
The 12 jury members unanimously disagreed with the defense, finding the Knotts guilty on all but one charge against each. Sabrina received two additional convictions for conspiracy to commit construction fraud, but most of the charges were related to obtaining money by false pretense, and failure to perform repairs or improvements after receiving an advance payment.
Judge Clark A. Ritchie ordered a pre-sentencing investigation for each defendant and agreed to allow them both to continue to be out on bond until sentencing due to their cooperation with the courts in both Page and Rockingham counties. They are scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 14, 2023. The defense must file any pre-trial motions by Friday, Jan. 12, 2024 — with the deadline for the commonwealth’s response by Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
Each of the 24 victims in Page County who were listed in the case, sent a certified letter to the Knott’s demanding a refund on their deposit within 15 days. Many were advised to do so by investigators before coming back to them to join the case. Now, those victims must wait for restitution after sentencing. Below is a list of those victims — most of whom testified during the trial — and the amounts they paid in deposits (for those we have):
- Charles E. Campbell — $11,000
- Kimberly Burkhart — $7,474
- Shirley Buracker — $6,300
- Jory Lawson — $5,500
- Jennifer Foltz
- Larry Miller — $1,200
- Britton for Shenandoah
- Nathan Kuhn
- Roy Campbell — $6,000
- John Wolf
- Clay Mayes — $5,000
- Joyce Comer — $5,000
- Joan Jackson — $7,000
- Shirley Weakley — $9,000
- Elaine Harlow — $12,000
- Isaac Good
- Dwight Buracker
- Mary Hilliard — $2,200
- Kay Leake — $8,000
- Diane Williams
- Deborah Comer — $3,300
- Michael Sessler — $7,000
- Victor Foster — $3,000
- Marsha Sampson — $12,000
“Financial records indicated that the Knott’s were using money paid from deposits for personal gain instead of purchasing materials for the jobs that were contracted,” reads a report about the outcome of the case posted Friday evening on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. “None of the victims who testified ever had materials delivered, work started by the Knotts, or completed in any manner by the Knott’s.”
A bankruptcy court has seized and sold some of the Knott’s equipment. A three-year investigation and the review of thousands of financial documents has come to a close. Now, the Knotts await their fate at sentencing in February.
“This has been a long and grueling case for all involved,” Sheriff Chad Cubbage stated in the Nov. 3 social media post. “I want to extend my thanks to the Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Cave and his incredible staff, Financial Crimes Investigator Howard Mulholland of the Office of the Attorney General, and the Criminal Investigations Division of the Page County Sheriff’s Office…I want to especially thank former PCSO Investigator Megan Morris for her hard work and dedication to this case as the original case agent.”
“I hope that this verdict has brought some closure to the victims in Page County.”
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