Itinerant preacher Carva White entered the courtroom with a cane in his hand and his ankles in bracelets, equipment that indicated both his frailty and taste for crime.
White, 46, was working as the music director at a church in Leavenworth when he devised an arson scheme. He set fire to Sunflower Missionary Baptist Church on Halloween in 2008. White started the blaze with the intention of scamming an insurance company. A week before setting the fire, White informed the church's minister of a plan to collect kickbacks from contractors who would submit inflated bids for the repair work.
White made two attempts to get a fire going when it looked like the first set of flames did less than $30,000 in damage.
White came to the attention of The Pitch in 2006. At the time, he was living in Kansas City, Missouri, and using children to raise money for his endeavors, ministerial and otherwise.
Kids acting on White's behalf approached vehicles as they were stopped at 63rd Street and Swope Parkway and other well-traveled intersections. The children offered candy in exchange for donations to a church they said had burned down.
White is the son of a preacher with a talent for music and a weakness for shortcuts. He received a 13-month prison sentence in 2001 on a bank fraud charge. In 2005, he led a small congregation in the Springfield area when the barn it was using burned down. (Cause of fire: unknown.)
White pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of using arson to commit mail fraud in connection with the Leavenworth church fire. The arson offense carries a 10-year sentence.
On Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, Judge Carlos Murguia gave White a 150-month sentence and ordered him to pay $374,003 to the insurance company and $1,000 to the church to cover the cost of the deductible on its policy.
White spoke in one- and two-word sentences at the hearing. His lawyer asked Murguia to recommend that White serve time at the federal prison system's medical centers in Springfield, Missouri, or Rochester, Minnesota. Murguia complied in acknowledgment of White's unspecified health issues.
In January, the pastor who knew of White's intentions, Marvin Clay, pleaded guilty to one count of misprison of a felony -- essentially lying to investigators.
A member of the church who attended the sentencing said Sunflower Missionary Baptist met at a Seventh-day Adventist Church after the fire. Eventually, repairs were made, and the congregation returned to building White had decided to torch for profit.
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