KC area contractor took $2k and didn’t finish the job. It’s not the first time.
When the small stretch of wall connecting the garage to Caitlin Locklear’s Overland Park home began to fall apart last November, she thought it would be “an easy fix.”
The concrete wall, which featured a deteriorating brick facade on top, was propped up using beams by a local foundation company, but the contractors couldn’t raise the brick without breaking them. So, they told her to hire a mason.
Locklear eventually hired Malakai Skinner of Skinner’s Masonry LLC, a masonry contractor company in Harrisonville, Missouri. She was “in a rush” and didn’t look into Skinner or any reviews of his work beforehand. It was something she wouldn’t normally do, Locklear said, but Skinner “sounded like he knew what he was doing.”
“I really wanted to start right away because ... (the brick) was being held up by ... I don’t know, force between the wall and another wall of our house, it just looked like it was gonna fall at any minute,” said Locklear.
Skinner asked for half of the $5,500 cost up front and that she pay via check or send the payment through one of two mobile payment services, Venmo or CashApp.
“So I was like, you know, this is typical because they have to go buy the materials. So I venmoed him $2,750,” Locklear said.
That’s when, she said, her troubles began.
She paid, he never showed
He later told Locklear that because Wednesday called for rain, he would have to wait to begin the work until he received the brick. This meant construction wouldn’t start until Thursday
When Thursday came around, Skinner still didn’t show up.
Locklear texted him to ask if he was still coming. Skinner said he needed to call, so she gave him her husband’s phone number — but he never called.
It took multiple attempts by Locklear and her husband to reach Skinner before he finally called her husband back. He said he needed four or five days without rain before he could start the project, so he would come over to their house the following week.
Locklear decided to give him one more chance, but the delays continued.
Skinner named in 2024 suit
But Locklear is not the only person to have issues with Skinner.
In 2024, Kansas City, Kansas, resident Gina Cheatham filed a small claims case against Skinner seeking $1,600. Skinner never attended the hearings for the case, but Cheatham won. Skinner was ordered to pay her $1,500 plus court costs.
The only difference in Cheatham’s case? Skinner actually showed up for the project. He tore down a retaining wall, but never returned to finish the job, according to court documents.
Cheatham said Skinner “had a lot of delays” once he started the work at her home. When they had a disagreement on where to lay the new wall’s foundation, she says that’s when she thinks working “started becoming a problem for him.”
First, his truck broke and he needed $500, on top of the $1,000 deposit she gave him, to fix it. Cheatham sent him the money. After that, Skinner “kept promising that he would be back,” but never returned. That’s when she made the decision to take Skinner to court.
“He said, ‘Well, you can go ahead and take me to court. You know, I’m not trying to rip you off, it’s just that I have things I have to do,” she said.
Since winning the case, Cheatham says she has only gotten $900 of the total amount she is owed. Skinner was steadily paying for a while, she said, but once winter arrived the payments stopped coming. Cheatham was understanding of Skinner’s inability to pay during the winter because the weather made it hard to work, but since then “it’s been excuses after excuses” as to why he can’t pay her, she says.
“I just almost hit the point where I feel like I’m not gonna get the rest of it,” said Cheatham.
Failed court filing
After going “back and forth” with Skinner trying to get her money back, Locklear asked if she could “at least have whatever (Skinner) didn’t spend on brick” while he tried to return the bricks he’d bought. On Nov. 21, Skinner told her he would send her a receipt the next day.
Skinner never sent it, and he didn’t respond to her text. Monday morning, three days after she asked for a receipt, Locklear requested Skinner send her the refund. That night, Skinner told her he would call her on Tuesday.
“So he called me on Tuesday and basically says that I inconvenienced him. He’s not sure if he can return the brick, he’s upset and he said ‘I don’t know what to do’ and I said ‘Well can you return us the money you haven’t spent yet?’” said Locklear.
Skinner said he could give her “a couple hundred dollars back” after calculating what he spent on the brick. Locklear declined the offer, telling Skinner she would be filing in court to get her money back. She filed the complaint in Kansas City, Missouri, but she says Skinner was no longer at the address she used to have the sheriff’s office deliver the summons.
She found a new address through the court system for Skinner, this time in Butler, Missouri, and used that address to refile the complaint. That address bounced back too.
She decided not to refile a third time and instead dismiss the case. It cost Locklear about $70 to file each complaint.
“I ended up just dismissing it because it’s like, do I want to keep spending my time wasting more money trying to find this guy and put in all this time and effort into doing it? So I decided, for my peace of mind, I was like I am just going to drop it,” she said.
In April, she filed a police report about the incident. Skinner told investigators that he did purchase materials for the project at Locklear’s home, according to Officer John Lacy, a spokesperson for the Overland Park Police Department.
Detective Raymond Newins said he was unable to comment on active investigations.
‘You feel really dumb’
Months after Locklear hired him, Skinner reached back out in May asking if he and Locklear could get on a call “to get everything figured out.” He said he believed the “whole situation” was “kind of wrong on both ends” and that he would take responsibility for what he did wrong. Locklear told him she didn’t “think a call would accomplish anything” but that she would like him to send her the refund they discussed.
She has still never received the $2,750 refund.
Locklear said she was told by detectives that Skinner would mail her a check the week of July 14, but she has yet to receive the payment. The Star contacted Skinner, who said the money “has been returned”. However, multiple attempts to interview Skinner about the allegations were unsuccessful.
The situation with Skinner, Locklear says, has not only upset her, but made her distrustful of hiring others. In March, she found out that Skinner was still advertising his business, this time in Prairie Village.
She doesn’t want anyone else to experience what she has, and said that’s why she decided to tell her story.
“It’s really embarrassing. You feel really dumb, and I just don’t want anyone else to feel that way ... I think he just runs people in circles, and I think that’s what he did to me ... and it’s kind of scary how someone can do that,” she said.
Similarly, Cheatham hopes Skinner becomes “known for what he’s doing to people out here.” She says she hopes he pays back those who he’s taken money from, including herself.
“I don’t want to stop on this, because I don’t want him to continue to keep doing this, even if I have to keep paying out of my pocket to make him aware that you need to do what you’re supposed to do,” she said. “If you’re gonna do the job, then you need to do the job and not rip people off of their money.”
