Pastor, wife who used addiction recovery center as front, convicted of multimillion dollar retail theft

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, February 16, 2026

Robert Dell, the former pastor of The Rock Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, and his wife, Jaclyn, who used their faith-based addiction recovery center as a front for a multimillion dollar retail theft scheme, have been convicted and are now facing possible sentences of up to 150 and 30 years in prison, respectively.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced in a release Friday that the Office of Statewide Prosecution secured the convictions following a two-week trial. Robert Dell was found guilty of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Acts relating to a theft scheme from Home Depot, which the company suspects was operated for more than a decade and cost the company more than $5 million in losses.

Along with co-conspirators Jessica Wild and Daniel Mace, the couple allegedly stole power tools from Home Depot locations across numerous counties in Florida. "The stolen merchandise was delivered nightly to the Dells’ house and then sold online. The scheme generated over $2 million in illegal proceeds from 2015-2023,"  the Florida Attorney General's Office said. 

“These fraudsters hid their true motives behind faith and charity to launder proceeds from a large-scale criminal enterprise,” said Uthmeier in a statement. “I am grateful to Ag Law Enforcement, FDLE, Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Paul Dontenville, and Assistant Statewide Prosecutors Eric Ross and Gianna Fina for ensuring that justice was served in this case.”

In addition to his previous work as a former pastor of The Rock Church, Dell served as the former director of Rock Solid Recovery, which promised to help drug addicts overcome their addictions. In 2023, however, the FORCE Taskforce, working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, charged Robert Dell with working with four accomplices to shoplift Milwaukee, DeWalt and other branded products from Home Depot stores. 

According to Uthmeier’s office, co-conspirators Mace and Wild stole a majority of the merchandise from Home Depot stores five to six times a day on average. Following the heists, they would then deliver the merchandise to Robert Dell’s house to be sold under the eBay store name: “Anointed Liquidator.”

Robert Dell was accused of demanding the crimes under threat of abuse and used his position as a purported pastor and recovery center director to manipulate vulnerable people.

“These verdicts show exactly what happens when Florida refuses to be a soft-on-crime state,” Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson said in a statement on the convictions. 

“Our Agricultural Law Enforcement agents were proud to lead the investigation in this case alongside the Attorney General’s Office, FDLE, and Home Depot to dismantle a long-running retail theft ring that victimized businesses across multiple counties. Organized retail crime drives up costs for everyday Floridians and undermines public safety. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to protect law-abiding families, support our law enforcement, and deliver real results for the people we serve.”

The conviction of the Dells and the exploiting of their faith-based addiction recovery center comes as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently announced that faith-based organizations that meet evidence-based addiction recovery standards will now be able to access federal funding under the Trump administration’s new policy on tackling drug addiction and homelessness nationwide.

“We are bringing faith-based providers fully into this work,” Kennedy said.

“This is a chronic disease. It's a physical disease. It's a mental disease; it's an emotional disease. But above all, it's a spiritual disease. And we need to recognize that. And faith-based organizations play a critical role ... [in] helping people reestablish their connections to community.”