COTULLA, Texas – A Hill Country contractor awaiting trial in a felony theft case has been charged with family violence for the second time in seven months, according to an incident report obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders.
Nickles Wolfe, 31, was charged with assault causing bodily injury to a family member and violation of a protective order following a Jan. 10 incident outside the La Salle County Sheriff’s Office.
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A source familiar with the case said Wolfe assaulted his wife during a child exchange in the sheriff’s office parking lot.
La Salle County Sheriff’s officials have released limited details about the arrest but stated Wolfe used his hands, feet and teeth as weapons during the incident.
Wolfe had been on bond since June, after his arrest in Jim Wells County on a felony family strangulation charge.
In that case, sheriff’s department investigators arrested Wolfe days after they were called to a home in Orange Grove for a disturbance.
Wolfe is also out on bond in Gillespie County, according to court records, where he is awaiting trial for multiple felony charges related to his now-shuttered construction company.
Multiple former clients of Wolfe told the Defenders in 2019 he took payments for work and then abandoned the projects before they were completed.
Wolfe was arrested months later, in August 2019, and charged with theft of property between $150,000 and $300,000, a second-degree felony, misapplication of fiduciary property over $300,000, a first-degree felony, and two third-degree felony counts of exploitation of the elderly.
Records show the trial date has been tentatively pushed to May 10 at the earliest, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on court settings in Texas.
Wolfe at one point was also a defendant in at least four civil lawsuits related to his company, records show.
One of Wolfe’s projects in Kendall County, which turned into an unstable carport with bowed beams, was supposed to cost under $18,000 to build. The homeowner told the Defenders in 2019 that the project’s cost ballooned to more than $80,000 since Wolfe’s work had to be dismantled and rebuilt properly.
A man in Gillespie County said he hired Wolfe in 2018 to build an enclosed barn and driveway, only to have Wolfe abandon the job before installing a ridge cap to connect both sides of the roof, failing to hook up electrical and failing to install windows inside the building. Wolfe also left behind large piles of trash, according to the homeowner, despite accepting full payment with the exception of a $2,000 completion fee.
A sergeant with the Gillespie County Sheriff’s Office told the Defenders in 2019 that he was, at one point, working seven criminal cases against Wolfe.
The state attorney general’s office eventually took over the case because it had the resources to properly handle it, Gillespie County officials said.