By: Sachet A. Sullivan | The Zion Times
The criminal case against David Bruce Kuykendall, owner of Diamond K Builders, has officially been dismissed — ending two years of legal turmoil that unfolded alongside a parallel civil suit involving two former employees. Kuykendall had faced second-degree felony charges of theft, communications fraud, and a class A misdemeanor for unlicensed contracting, based on allegations that he misused a licensed qualifier associated with his company, NuWay Construction, LLC dba Black Rock Builders Utah. Prosecutors alleged he had improperly operated under another contractor’s license and obtained money from customers through misrepresentation — claims that depended on whether Diamond K’s billing and operational practices during that period reflected criminal intent or internal disruption.
Though the criminal allegations were not directly tied to the civil litigation, both developed during the same late-2023 to mid-2024 period — a time when Diamond K was already experiencing internal disruption. According to the Fifth District Court, two management-level employees — Bretten Lozano and Kneisha Carter — had engaged in conduct that breached their fiduciary duties, interfered with contracts, defamed the company, and converted Diamond K property. The court found that their actions included diverting clients, deleting and restricting access to company records, factory-resetting devices, withholding passwords, encouraging customers to pay subcontractors directly, and making false statements about Diamond K’s billing practices. The court further noted that these actions caused Diamond K’s “cash flow to dry up,” damaged customer trust, and “severely jeopardized Diamond K’s business going forward.” This misconduct began before any licensing review or civil litigation and continued into the same period investigators later examined, creating an overlapping timeline that became essential to understanding the context surrounding the criminal allegations.
According to the Preliminary Injunction Order and Ruling in the Diamond K Engineering & Grading, Inc. v. Lozano, Carter, and White Rock Home Builders civil suit, the Department of Professional Licensing (DOPL) began looking into Diamond K in late 2023 and early 2024. During that same period, Lozano and Carter were reportedly sitting in confidential strategy meetings with Diamond K’s legal counsel while simultaneously communicating with DOPL investigator Jay Thornton. The court described this dual role as “troubling,” noting that Carter directed customers to contact Thornton and encouraged them to monitor the May 22 licensing hearing — the same hearing where Kuykendall learned for the first time that she had been speaking with DOPL behind his back. These dual loyalties, paired with their interference in Diamond K’s records and client relationships, formed part of the backdrop against which later criminal allegations emerged.
By the time law enforcement opened the criminal investigation, the record shows they were stepping into a situation already complicated with internal misconduct, disputed licensing issues, and conflicting information being fed to state regulators.
“At the May 22 hearing, Mr. Kuykendall learned for the first time that Carter had been talking to investigator Jay Thornton without his knowledge, including falsely telling Mr. Thornton that Mr. Kuykendall had directed her to input false statements on DOPL forms. Carter nor Lozano never told Mr. Kykendall of their communications with DOPL investigator Thornton. The Court finds it troubling that Lozano and Carter worked with Diamond K’s attorney regarding the DOPL investigation and were also talking with the DOPL investigator.”
Source: Fifth District Court of Utah, Iron County, “Preliminary Injunction Order and Ruling,” Case No. 240500075 (entered May 30, 2025).
After the Preliminary Injunction was issued, the criminal investigation itself quickly came under scrutiny. In a letter sent by Kuykendall’s criminal defense attorney, Scott Garrett, to Iron County Attorney Chad Dotson, Garrett outlined concerns about the conduct of the investigation — including the role of DOPL investigator Jay Thornton, Iron County Sheriff’s Detective Mark Zakarian, and Prosecutor Sam Woodall with the Iron County Attorney’s Office.
Kuykendall provided the letter to The Zion Times, which raised additional concerns about DOPL’s role in the matter. Garrett noted that DOPL investigator Jay Thornton continued participating in the criminal case even though the Division had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on June 10, 2024 agreeing to “cease its investigation into Diamond K’s business activities” and not encourage any governmental agency or private party to pursue claims against Kuykendall. Garrett wrote that Thornton’s continued communications — including references to conduct predating June 2024 — appeared to contradict that agreement, adding another irregularity to the investigative process.
“DOPL specifically promised in an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) dated June 10, 2024 that ‘[t]he Division will cease its investigation into Diamond K’s business activities, and will not encourage any other governmental agency or private party to investigate or pursue any claims against Diamond K and/or its president, David Bruce Kuykendall.’ Jay Thornton appears to be violating that agreement by his active participation in and referencing alleged conduct by Mr. Kuykendall prior to June 2024. We will be raising these concerns with DOPL also.” the letter reads.
Garrett’s concerns didn’t stop with DOPL. His letter also raised issues surrounding Iron County Sheriff’s Detective Mark Zakarian, whose recorded statements, he argued, called the neutrality of the investigation into question. Garrett wrote that Zakarian’s interviews reflected an assumption of guilt rather than an impartial fact-finding process. In one recording, Zakarian reportedly stated, “If the court finds him guilty, as I hope they will, on these multiple offenses, he will be buried for a while,” characterizing Kuykendall’s alleged conduct as “insidious” and “criminal.” In another, he described his planned approach as “kind of an onslaught… stuff that is going to hit him pretty hard… we are going to hit his business, his home… he’s got a concealed weapons permit.”
According to Garrett’s letter, Zakarian also acknowledged that the criminal investigation had been influenced by Iron County Prosecutor Sam Woodall. Garrett wrote that Zakarian said Woodall had asked, “is there something we can do to intercept that?” — referring to Kuykendall’s ongoing civil suit against former employees. Garrett argued this comment suggested the criminal case may have been used to interfere with the civil proceedings, raising concerns about impartiality and proper professional conduct. Garrett also noted public statements made to local media by Woodall that reportedly implied additional charges were forthcoming, a move he argued risked shaping public perception before the evidence had been reviewed.
In addition to these concerns, Garrett’s letter highlighted comments Zakarian allegedly made about the civil case itself — remarks Garrett argued further demonstrated bias and a misunderstanding of the proper role of law enforcement in civil disputes. In that portion of the letter, Garrett wrote:
“Notwithstanding this, Detective Zakarian says that [the civil case] was ridiculous, intimating that law enforcement had to intervene/interfere to avert a miscarriage of justice. Rather than file a lawsuit, hold evidentiary hearings in front of a duly appointed and law trained district court judge, and spend all the time and resources, Zakarian amazingly thinks he knows better than everyone else and can dispense justice himself, like a Sheriff in the wild west.”
Adding context to the criminal claims, the civil case revealed that the former employees had reportedly formed a secret competing company, White Rock Home Builders, using proprietary information and client data taken from Diamond K. Following a five-day evidentiary hearing involving 19 witnesses and approximately 75 exhibits, Judge Wilcox issued an oral ruling finding in favor of Diamond K, and concluded that the defendants breached fiduciary duties, engaged in tortious interference, committed defamation, and converted Diamond K property for their own use. These findings were later ratified by Judge Meb Anderson on May 30, 2025, who issued a signed injunction reinforcing that the defendants had effectively stolen Diamond K’s business and clientele and ordered them to cease contact with Diamond K clients and return all misappropriated materials.
The preliminary injunction summarized the court’s findings as follows:
“Lozano’s and Carter’s actions are the actual and proximate cause of Diamond K’s harm. The Court concludes that the evidence clearly shows that Defendants used the information wrongly taken and the misrepresentations wrongly made to steal Diamond K’s business.” Customers terminated their contracts with the Company because of Lozano’s and Carter’s breaches of duty. (Id. ¶ 34.) Customers signed up with White Rock, where Lozano and Carter misused Diamond K’s confidential business information and other property and assets to service Diamond K’s customers. (Id.) These damages are irreparable, as explained below, and have severely jeopardized Diamond K’s business going forward.” — Judge Meb W. Anderson, Preliminary Injunction Order and Ruling, Conclusions of Law ¶7, p.17
While the civil findings suggested serious misconduct by the former employees, they were unrelated to the criminal allegations against Kuykendall. Yet, the investigation repeatedly referenced the civil case in ways that Kuykendall’s legal team argued were improper and biased, raising questions about the integrity of the criminal process.
Reportedly, Zakarian also admitted that the investigation had been influenced by Iron County Prosecutor Sam Woodall. According to Garrett’s June 2, 2025 letter, Zakarian stated that Woodall had asked, “is there something we can do to intercept that?”—referring to Kuykendall’s ongoing civil case against former employees. This remark, combined with other statements, raised questions about the potential overlap between the criminal investigation and the civil proceedings.
Following Garrett’s objections, the case was quietly transferred to the Washington County Attorney’s Office, where prosecutors reviewed Kuykendall’s business records and tax filings and ultimately confirmed that Diamond K Builders had been operating at a loss during the relevant period.
Before Washington County reached its decision, Garrett sent a detailed letter to conflict prosecutor Jim Weeks laying out why the charges were unsubstantiated. In that letter, Garrett argued that Iron County had filed felony charges “unsupported by the evidence” and had done so without ever obtaining or reviewing Diamond K’s financial records. He wrote that law enforcement “put the cart before the horse” by pursuing criminal charges tied to a business dispute while lacking the financial documentation necessary to substantiate claims of theft, fraud, or personal gain.
Garrett further emphasized that Diamond K’s mutual accountant had analyzed tax filings, bank statements, accounts payable, and internal financials, concluding that the business showed no profits available for distribution and in fact operated at a loss throughout 2024 and into 2025.
According to the letter, these records demonstrated that Kuykendall took no improper distributions and received no unauthorized financial benefit, undermining the core elements of the theft and fraud charges.
The letter also noted that any financial irregularities stemmed not from criminal conduct by Kuykendall but from the internal sabotage documented in the civil case — including diverted clients, deleted records, and disrupted cash flow. Garrett argued that those actions, which the civil court found to constitute breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference, defamation, and conversion, were the true source of the company’s financial injury. He wrote that the former employees’ conduct had misled investigators and “misidentified the proper defendants,” pointing out that the civil findings identified Lozano and Carter as the parties responsible for the harm.
Once Washington County reviewed the complete financial data — including the tax records and accounting analysis Garrett supplied — prosecutors determined that the evidence did not support the allegations. Within days of receiving the materials, the Washington County Attorney’s Office filed its motion to dismiss the case.
In a follow-up interview with the Iron County Attorney’s Office, TZT pressed Iron County Attorney Chad Dotson on a central question that had surfaced repeatedly during the review of Kuykendall’s case: why were none of the financial records seized during the search warrant ever turned over in discovery?
“Our office turned over all reports and documents we had in our possession at the time the case was sent to the Washington County Attorney’s Office.” he said.
That answer raised further questions. Detectives seized more than twenty boxes of evidence during the investigation — including financial documents, laptops containing Diamond K’s accounting files, and the company’s internal audits. None of that material was disclosed to the defense. TZT asked Dotson directly why his office never received those records from law enforcement if they were collected as evidence.
Dotson replied, “The investigation was still ongoing and I am sure it took time for the Detectives to process that. It is not uncommon to get additional evidence as the investigation progresses.” He continued, “There were several different allegations being investigated. Ones that we had not charged as well.”
TZT then asked why, if multiple allegations were under investigation, why no investigation had been opened into former employees Kniesha Carter and Bretten Lozano — despite the civil court’s findings against them for Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations, Defamation, and Conversion, and despite repeated criminal allegations raised during the civil litigation.
Dotson was also asked why his office would charge Kuykendall for financial crimes without any financial documents; in the event his office never received them. Dotson responded that he “couldn’t speak to that”.
When TZT clarified whether he was declining to answer both questions, Dotson instead listed the charges his office had filed, stating that Kuykendall “was charged with Theft by Deception, Communications Fraud, and engaging in construction trade without a license. And an assault case.” He then asked whether TZT had obtained the Probable Cause Statement. TZT confirmed they had and pointed out that the PC itself relied on specific financial calculations. The theft charges were reportedly for money that was not paid to Kuykendall’s qualifier, TZT emphasized this by stating “that requires financial documents other than just a man alleging he didn’t get paid.”
TZT then sent Dotson a screenshot from Detective Zakarian’s Probable Cause Statement, which outlined builder fees, contract percentages, and projected entitlements — figures that had to originate from accounting records that, again, were never turned over in discovery.
When given one final opportunity to clarify why those records were never disclosed, Dotson reiterated his initial response:
“Our office turned over all reports and documents we had in our possession at the time the case was sent to the Washington County Attorney’s Office.”
If those seized financial documents were indeed never forwarded to the prosecutors — and never disclosed to the defense — they could be considered exculpatory under Utah law and Brady v. Maryland. Financial records showing losses, lack of profit, or absence of personal gain would go directly to the heart of a theft or fraud case. Failing to provide such evidence, whether through oversight or breakdown in communication between investigators and prosecutors, could have materially impacted Kuykendall’s ability to defend himself and could raise broader concerns about the completeness of the investigation.
On the day Washington County filed its Motion to Dismiss, Kuykendall was scheduled to appear in court. During the hearing, the judge granted the motion and issued an Order of Dismissal without Prejudice.
In a brief interview with The Zion Times after the dismissal, Kuykendall became emotional as he described the moment he learned the case was finally being closed. “I’m just so grateful it’s over,” he said with visible relief, reflecting on the two years he spent fighting allegations that were ultimately dismissed after conflict prosecutors reviewed Diamond K’s financial records.
A few days later — TZT followed up to ask how he was feeling now that the case was behind him. This time, his voice carried something heavier.
“The first thing that comes to mind is anger,” he said.
He explained that as he pieced together how the investigation unfolded, he realized the extent to which his two former employees had, in his words, “weaponized DOPL” against him — setting off a chain of events that led to his arrest, the seizure of his business records, the collapse of his company’s cash flow, the erosion of his reputation, and two years marked by fear and uncertainty.
As he described the past two years, he reflected on the trauma and unkindness he endured following his arrest.
“For two years I was harassed, defamed and destroyed by DOPL,” he said.
He also addressed the rumors that spread online — claims he found both baffling and deeply hurtful.
“There were people claiming I built their house that I’ve never met in my life,” he said. Kuykendall is known for building luxury homes, many of which have appeared in the Parade of Homes.
And despite everything, there was a moment of grace that slipped out in the middle of all the anger and exhaustion.
“But you know, hey, I forgive ’em. Have a good life,” he said — not as a closing line, but as someone trying to make peace with what happened.
He ended the conversation by turning toward the future. He said he is “thankful to be exonerated and that the word is out there but the good news won’t spread as far as the bad news did. And the bigger the target on your back is, the more successful you are, it gets bigger and bigger and people love to shoot you down. But I’m still here, I’m still in business and I’m still building beautiful homes. I’ll probably win the Parade of Homes next year,” he added.
Then, as if grounding himself after two years of chaos, he looked back on the life he built before any of this. He started with a dump truck and a single piece of equipment and worked his way into luxury golf courses, high-end resorts, and multimillion-dollar homes — work that eventually put him in circles with celebrities most people only ever see on screen, John Wayne among them.
“I’ve had a really great life,” he said. As he reminded himself that the last two years, as heavy as they were, did not erase everything that came before.
TZT sought comment from Iron County Sheriff Ken Carpenter regarding both the initial investigation and the allegations outlined in Garrett’s letter, which was sent to County Attorney Chad Dotson and copied to Carpenter. The Sheriff did not address the claims or the investigative questions, stating only, “the letter was addressed and sent to the County Attorney. Any statement on its contents will have to come from them.”
JUSTICE FOR DIAMOND K: JUDGE RULES KUYKENDALL WAS BETRAYED FROM WITHIN – The Zion Times
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