Devin Gray, former athletic director at Greenwood Christian Academy, is pictured in the school gym in June 2020.
The former athletic director of the Greenwood Christian Academy was sentenced for stealing money from the school and using it for gift cards and sports betting.
Devin M. Gray, of Greenwood, was sentenced for theft as a Level 6 felony in connection to the reported theft of more than $41,400.
The 31-year-old pled guilty to the charge of theft and was sentenced Jan. 4 to one year on active probation. Gray was also ordered to pay back the money that was stolen as restitution to Greenwood Christian Academy.
News of the incident spread on May 26, 2023, after the GCA School Board issued a message to parents about the investigation ahead of formal charges being filed. Gray was employed at GCA as the high school athletic director from June 2020 to April 2023.
The investigation into Gray started on May 5, when GCA’s former superintendent Mike Chitty reported that he suspected Gray stole “thousands of dollars” from the school, according to court documents filed with Johnson County Superior Court 3.
School officials say Gray was given a credit card registered in GCA’s name, and over the past year, the card had been used to make over $40,000 in purchases. When asked by the school about the purchases, Gray allegedly said he was purchasing Vanilla Visa gift cards for a good cause, court documents say.
Financial records provided by the school later showed that between June 16, 2022 and Oct. 15, 2022, Gray purchased over $41,325 in gift cards. Adding in activation fees, the total amount of the gift cards purchased equaled $42,564.27, court documents say.
A week or so later, police met with GCA officials again. The superintendent said he had spoken with Gray, who said the gift cards were purchased for GCA coaches to use for their athletic teams. Gray also reportedly said he sent a box containing some of the gift cards he purchased back to Visa and was attempting to return them to get a refund, court documents say.
Another school official reached out to GCA coaches and was able to determine that they received about $1,150 in gift cards. There was still $40,175 in gift cards unaccounted for, court documents say.
After further investigation with the help of the agency that processed the gift card activations, school officials discovered all of the cards had been redeemed at Draft Kings, a sports betting website, documents say.
Additionally, officials believed that cash was not turned in from gate and vending sales from high school sporting events and they think Gray might have taken some of it. From Aug. 22, 2022 to March 10, 2023, the middle school athletic director turned in over $15,104, while Gray turned in over $5,833.97 for high school events, court documents say.
Gray allegedly told detectives he used to make purchases for the athletic department with the credit card before he turned it in. He said he turned in the card because of the gift cards and admitted that the purchases were his, court documents say.
He later said it was “likely he used them” for DraftKings, where he had an account but was trying to move on from because he didn’t want it to be a “part of our life.” He also told police he used a “good chunk of the cards,” possibly putting about $20,000 on his account, though this is a “ballpark,” court documents say.
Detectives also asked him about the difference in the gate and vending deposits. Gray said he took one of the deposits home with him and it was allegedly stolen out of his vehicle, court documents say.
Gray was pressed further about the deposits and whether he took any cash from them. He allegedly said he wasn’t pocketing cash every game to use for himself, but said it was “maybe a handful” of incidents where he had some in his pocket.
He later guessed that he may have taken $2,000 over the year, but that this was a “ballpark” estimate, court documents say.
Gray told police he hated it for GCA, and he wished he was able to resolve it. He reportedly said he had hoped that he could go to the school “with this big pot of money whether they were able to get any money back from the card company or not.”
A day after the police interview, Gray reportedly emailed the president of the GCA School Board confessing to the misuse of gift cards and asking to speak to the school board. The board president declined, court documents say.
