A pool contractor pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1.7 million from more than 40 clients.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas On a hot, sticky Texas day in Montgomery County, Jacqueline Heber, instead of swimming in the new pool she paid tens of thousands of dollars for, sweeps the trash around that ugly, smelly cement pit that is now in her backyard.

This is what the pool contractor left her with the promise of a beautiful backyard oasis.

“Rebar rests on the ground, broken pipes and mosquitoes everywhere. It’s a mess, Jacqueline said.

Yes, that’s what Jacqueline had to live with after he paid pool builder Mark Mills and his St. Croix Custom Pools $70,000.

“He stole the money from my hands and then disappeared,” Jacqueline said.

Russell and Beth Dezillets paid the same person over $54,000 for a dream pool that also turned out to be a disaster.

“He ate us alive. It really is. I thought I was going to have a heart attack because of this,” Russell said.

Now, more than a year later, Nancy Hebert of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office is pursuing a pool contractor for taking a total of $1.7 million from more than 40 of his clients.

“Each day when they get up in the morning and look at their back porch, they should see this beautiful shining pool, but instead they get a daily reminder of how they are being fucked,” Nancy said.

Now, all of a sudden, instead of going to trial, Mills has pleaded guilty in a plea deal to a felony of misapplying fiduciary duties that carries a penalty of up to life in prison.

Nancy, the prosecutor on the case, calls it a well-deserved punishment for what he did.

“These people are real people. These are real dreams that they had, and he turned these dreams into nightmares, ”said Nancy.