Man who admitted swindling 2 Roanoke churches heads to prison, is ordered to repay thousands

Derrick Stewart had a plan in mind when he went to see Pastor Alvin Murdock back in the summer of 2016.

He had been inspired and compelled by “a vision,” is what Stewart told the minister; he said he had been sent to Murdock by God.

Specifically, he offered a means by which Murdock’s tiny Saved by Grace church might shed the walls it has occupied since 1993, a two-story single-family home just off Shenandoah Avenue in northwest Roanoke.

Copious grant money was available from the government, Stewart said, if one knew how to apply for it, and he claimed that he did.

Saved by Grace could get as much as a quarter of a million dollars for renovations, he declared, and he would set it all up for Murdock and his church, and not charge them a thing.

With $250,000, they could tear down the old building entirely and build a brand new worship hall in its place.

It was undeniably tempting, but Murdock confessed to Stewart he didn’t know much about that kind of relief.

Could Saved by Grace apply for renovation grants even if it wasn’t broke? Murdock asked him. If the church in fact had amassed upwards of $50,000 from offerings, fundraisers and tithing?

That money would not be a problem at all, Stewart assured the pastor.

And so he set to work, and over the four months that followed, Stewart proceeded to drain Saved by Grace of all its cash. Four years later, the church still stands where it always has, unchanged. Lacking central air, it still relies on a few aged window units for cooling in the summer.

“He came by, telling me God had sent him more or less to help us. I actually believed him,” Murdock said last week as he testified in Roanoke Circuit Court at Stewart’s sentencing for embezzlement.

At the end of that hearing, Stewart, 51, got three years in prison and was ordered to repay Saved by Grace $55,650.

Even as he delivered the sentence, Judge Onzlee Ware voiced doubt that the church would ever recover all it had lost and, despite Stewart’s request to remain free until January, he ordered the man into custody on the spot.

“There comes a time when you have to get right with the world,” Ware told Stewart. “And today is your time.”

Churches should 'trust, but verify' to avoid falling victim to scammers

‘A very serious lesson’

Although Murdock declined a request to be interviewed about what happened, much of his story came out Wednesday and at other court hearings.

“How was it that you and your church came to part with some $50,000 to Mr. Stewart, for what turned out to be nothing?” Donald Wolthuis, Roanoke’s deputy commonwealth’s attorney, asked Murdock in court.

“Good question,” he said wearily. He recalled he had actually met Stewart a few months earlier, at his own niece’s funeral, so the man was not a total stranger when he showed up with his miraculous proposal.

Stewart told Murdock he’d previously been a church bishop but had stepped down to the rank of elder in order to better serve another local ministry, which Murdock found humbling, “an outstanding gesture.” Stewart then became a member of Saved by Grace’s congregation so he could represent the church in seeking grants.

The process began in September 2016 and quickly incurred expenses, a few thousand dollars at a time: $3,975 for an accountant, $3,000 for “processing,” $3,000 for computers, $6,500 for a building survey. And on and on and on.

A $6,500 check was cut to demolish the building, and another for $7,000 to raze it.

Yet with all the money that was going out, no progress ever became visible.

Murdock started asking for receipts, which never materialized, and soon the church was in too deep to turn back. By January 2017, its finances depleted, it also could no longer go forward.

“None of that stuff that’s written on those checks came to be, did it?” Wolthuis asked Stewart in court.

“No. It didn’t,” Stewart acknowledged.

Another prosecution witness underscored the broader range of Stewart’s influence and effects.

Pastor Sylvan Moyer of the Unlimited Power Church in Roanoke County testified that in 2010, he, too, had been approached by a man offering to help get grant money. The building that Unlimited Power occupied was due for demolition and the congregation needed a new home. Over the course of a year and a half, Moyer and the church’s trustees paid that man $25,000.

“We found in the process ... it was false,” Moyer said. During Wednesday’s hearing, Stewart acknowledged that man had indeed been him.

A lawyer was hired, letters were sent; Moyer even contacted Stewart’s church to appeal to him on a spiritual level, to no avail.

“I learned something. I did. Our church learned something. A very serious lesson,” Moyer explained.

But the church opted not to notify the police, and so Stewart was never charged in that case, never flagged.

“We decided not to pursue it because we knew ... we wouldn’t even get our money back and we figured ... if he goes to jail, that’s not going to happen,” Moyer told the court.

‘I don’t need to be in jail’

Stewart’s criminal history includes felonies dating back to his 20s in New Jersey. Larceny in 1991, fraud in 1994, felony bad checks in 1999. While Stewart racked up smaller offenses in North and South Carolina, and even when he came to live in Virginia sometime in the 2000s, defense attorney Melvin Hill argued that his last felony conviction was more than two decades in the past.

And locally, Stewart eventually did come clean: In addition to his admission that he’d stolen from Unlimited Power, he pleaded guilty in July to embezzling from Saved by Grace.

His scams are a variation on confidence games such as the Spanish Prisoner, a scheme from the 19th century, up to the more recent junk emails from “Nigerian princes,” which revolve around the lure of: “Give me something now, and I’ll get you a huge return later.”

Stewart posed a version of that same type of offer to the judge Wednesday, at the close of his sentencing hearing, when he promised to make the church whole in less than three months, provided he could stay out on bond until at least January.

He presented a $5,000 check toward restitution, on top of $1,560 he has paid since July. He said he could get the remaining $49,090 — a relative has agreed to give it to him out of their 401(k) retirement fund, he claimed — but asked to remain free until then to support his family and make payments against that loan.

“We just decided that we would just go ahead and handle this, because I don’t need to be in jail,” Stewart told Ware, who denied his request. The judge did say he might reconsider sentencing if the restitution actually came through.

Stewart said a stroke he suffered in early 2018, which occurred while he was in the middle of an interview with a Roanoke police detective, and which landed in him the hospital for eight days, had given him a renewed perspective.

“I’m sorry to Saved by Grace. I’m very sorry. I’ve learned so much from having this stroke. I’ve learned how to be real honest, real truthful,” Stewart said on the stand.

He also denied attempting crimes against any churches except those two.

“So you’re 100% successful as a con man?” Wolthuis noted.

“I wouldn’t call myself a con man,” Stewart replied.

“This was not a misguided venture. This was not a business deal that went awry,” Wolthuis argued. “This is a predatory con man doing what he does, supposedly in the name of the Lord and taking advantage of people’s faith.”

When Hill asked Murdock if he supported prison time for Stewart, the pastor was sympathetic but resigned. “You don’t want that for nobody, but under the circumstances, whatever has to be dealt with has to be dealt with,” he said.

“I don’t want his behavior to wind up hurting another church, or other people.”