Tulsa Pastor Changes Plea To Guilty To Embezzlement

A west Tulsa pastor pleads guilty to embezzling more than $900,000 from his church.

Federal prosecutors said Reverend Willard Jones used the money to pay for luxury items, gambling, jewelry and cars. Now he'll have to turn all that stuff over to the feds.

Originally, Jones pleaded not guilty to the charges, but prosecutors said they presented strong enough evidence to Jones' attorney to change his plea.

10/9/2014 Related Story: Tulsa Pastor Willard Jones Pleads Guilty To Fraud Charges

A church is divided regarding whether Jones should stay or go.

Some church members are furious Jones wouldn't step down once it became known he was under federal indictment.

After an FBI investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Jones stole more than $930,000 from a fund used to build the Cornerstone Community Center.

U.S. Attorney, Danny Williams said, "As we understand it, Reverend Jones had gone back to the major funders and asked for additional monies to run a center, after it had been built they began to question why he would need additional funding."

Williams said his office had a strong case against the reverend. He said investigators were able to show where thousands of dollars were transferred from the community center to Jones' personal bank account.

Prosecutors said Jones will have to turn over his home, luxury items – including a mink coat and cars - and pay back the money.

"He's going to have to figure it out; I don't think he thought about that when he was using that money for the things he was using it for. It's an obligation that we're going to hold him accountable for," Williams said.

Williams is pushing for prison time for Jones.

"I'm hopeful that once this saga is behind the center that the donors will come back and see that center survives," he said.

Now the focus is keeping the community center and church running.

"It's hard to understand how he can go from being man of God to now convicted felon, so obviously my heart goes out to them," said Williams.

Sentencing for Jones isn't scheduled until next year. The reverend is out on bond.