I hired a contractor to roof my home I gave him 1300 dollars to start the project back in nov. many excusses later its jan and the job has not been started. I have asked for my money back to no avail. Can I press grand thief charges against him.

You may call the police and file a report against him. It will be up to the DA to determine if this is a case of fraud or not.

Was this one of the roofers, that have sales people come to your door, leave advertisements and then come back to attempt to sell you?

I ask this there was a few years ago, one contractor who had over 300 charges against him in 6 counties in Georgia, (never prosecuted)
There is always a fine line between torts (civil claims) and criminal activity. If for example they perhaps file bankruptcy and say they were trying but did bad business practices. Many of them actually do about 20 percent of the roofs, to show they were in business, now they actually hire sub-contractors who they don't pay for about 1/2, and the sales people are left being owed 2 to 4 weeks of pay also.

I actually had this happen to me, about 8 years ago. We ended up suing the company, the sales person who signed the contract with me, and the manager who also signed the contract. The company was a corporation and the owners exempt from suit, (although we tried) I did end up getting a garnishment of pay from the manager and the sales person (a little sad, since they were also cheated by the company)

While charges where filed against them, they somehow escaped prosecution because they showed they "had" attempted to do the work, but could not.

These companies often appear and disappear with the owners starting new ones often.

So you file a civil suit (sue them) and report them to the police, that is all you can do.

I may get all of my money back in another 10 years if the manager and sales person can keep working somewhere.

Also depending on the exact wording of the statue, this is more likely a crime of conversion or false pretenses such as fraud not larceny

This may be fraud but probably not larceny. And I think grand theft limits are at $5K.

Report it to the police or your local consumer protect agency. Was the contractor licensed and insured? Do you have the licesen and insurance numbers? Do you have a written contract?