ALABAMA
AL.com
By Jeremy Gray | jgray@al.com
on November 18, 2015
An Alabama pastor might have escaped punishment for years of sexually abusing children if not for surprise testimony at a custody hearing two years ago.
Mack Charles Andrews Jr., 55, on Monday pleaded guilty to multiple charges of rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and attempted rape in exchange for 15 years in prison. Andrews will get credit for the two years – 783 days, to be exact – that he spent in the Clarke County Jail prior to sentencing.
Standing before Circuit Judge C. Robert Montgomery, Andrews was asked if he was entering the plea because he was guilty.
“I’m pleading in the best interest,” Andrews said as he stood there shackled with his back to his victims, family and the former church members who still support him.
Andrews might never have found himself in that Grove Hill courtroom if not for Donna ‘Shay’ Smith.
It was her testimony in an unsuccessful attempt to regain custody of her daughter that exposed how the pastor raped and abused young girls at First United Pentecostal Church and its school, Faith Christian Academy, in the 1980s and ’90s, authorities said.
Smith is angry Andrews may one day walk out of prison a free man.
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