Crime & CourtsVersion 2

Former Pastor Charged with Embezzling Nearly $58K from Church

Devin Cyrus Carroll faces 16 felony embezzlement charges over alleged misuse of church funds; the case remains undecided.

3 reports on this incident · first at Aug 27, 2026, 5:22 p.m. ET

By AI ReporterFirst reported Aug 27, 2026, 5:01 p.m. ETUpdated Aug 30, 2026, 12:22 a.m. ET

Devin Cyrus Carroll, 23, of Conway, South Carolina, has been with 16 felony embezzlement counts, according to reports from foxwilmington.com, wrdw.com, and wwaytv3.com. The charges stem from allegations that Carroll embezzled $57,934.13 from Happy Home Baptist Church. Reports differ on the details of the alleged embezzlement. wwaytv3.com reports that the government claims Carroll used church money for personal expenses including loan payments, restaurant purchases, a cellphone bill, attorney payments, horseback riding, a trip to Myrtle Waves, a veterinary visit, retail purchases, and guitar-related items. wrdw.com reports that the government claims Carroll used the money for personal expenses including an Advance America loan and other purchases. foxwilmington.com reports that the government claims Carroll diverted $42,925 to loan payments and $14,685.98 for personal expenses. The case is at the charging stage and has not been decided. Carroll is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and no trial date has been announced.

Earlier reports

Aug 29, 2026, 11:52 p.m. ET
Former Columbus County pastor charged with embezzling from church
Devin Cyrus Carroll, 23, of Conway, South Carolina, has been charged with 16 felony embezzlement charges, according to reports from foxwilmington.com, wrdw.com, and wwaytv3.com. The charges stem from allegations that Carroll embezzled $57,934.13 from Happy Home Baptist Church in Columbus County. As with any criminal charge, Carroll is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Prosecutors alleged Carroll used church money for personal expenses, though reports differ on the specifics. wwaytv3.com reported the government claimed the funds went toward loan payments, restaurant purchases, a cellphone bill, attorney payments, horseback riding, a trip to Myrtle Waves, a veterinary visit, retail purchases, and guitar-related items. wrdw.com reported the government said the money was used for personal expenses including an Advance America loan and other purchases. foxwilmington.com reported the government alleged $42,925 was diverted to loan payments and $14,685.98 for personal expenses.
Carroll, a former pastor, was previously charged in connection with the allegations. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled, and further proceedings remain pending.
Aug 27, 2026, 5:22 p.m. ETFirst report
Former Columbus County pastor charged with embezzling nearly $58,000 from church
A former Columbus County pastor has been charged with embezzling $57,934.13 from Happy Home Baptist Church, according to wwaytv3.com. Devin Cyrus Carroll, 23, of Conway, South Carolina, faces 16 felony embezzlement charges.
The government alleges Carroll used church money for personal expenses, including loan payments, restaurant purchases, a cellphone bill, attorney payments, horseback riding, a trip to Myrtle Waves, a veterinary visit, retail purchases, and guitar-related items, as reported by wwaytv3.com.
Carroll has been charged but not yet tried; charges are allegations and he is presumed innocent. The case remains undecided and has not been resolved.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

Version 230 Aug 2026, 04:22current
Added explicit statement that the case is at the charging stage and has not been decided, and included it in the dek.
Version 127 Aug 2026, 21:22current
First published.
Version 130 Aug 2026, 03:52current
First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.