GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WHTC) – A 32-year-old Jenison man already with a criminal past has taken a plea deal instead of going to trial on Monday for allegedly bilking Kent County residents out of money for doing contracting jobs he never finished.
Jeffery TenElshof, already slated for jail and prison sentences in earlier, similar cases in both Kent and Ottawa counties, will not contest additional larceny by conversion charges in a deal that keeps him from an even larger stretch behind bars as a three-time felony offender. TenElshof is on the State Police Sex Offender Registry for a 2005 third-degree CSC conviction.
Prosecutors claim that TenElshof, in this case as in the other two related cases, would take a few thousand dollars advance from victims, and then make numerous excuses as to why he couldn’t finish his work.
Despite the plea deal, TenElshof may not get off too lightly when he is sentenced on April 23. The judge handing down the sentence is Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock, known throughout the region for being a hard-line sentencing juror.
