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AP, via FoxNews.com, USA
Nov. 28, 2006
www.foxnews.com

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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 16671 • Posted: Wednesday November 29, 2006  

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MODESTO, Calif. — A former Stanislaus County pastor was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border on suspicion of murder for allegedly causing a car accident that killed an 85-year-old man in a scheme to inherit his trust fund.

Doug Porter, 55, was being held without bail after getting detained at a checkpoint near San Diego on Monday as he tried to return to the United States from Mexico. In addition to the murder charge, Porter faces counts of attempted murder, elder abuse and grand theft, said Stanislaus County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Goold.

Porter was the pastor at Hickman Community Church when he met and befriended Frank Craig, who had up to $4 million in stocks and real estate left to him after his brother died, according to another brother, N.J. Craig.

The elderly man asked Porter to help him build an agriculture-themed museum, and by 1999, the pastor had control of his finances, family members said. The trust was changed to replace Craig’s two sisters with Porter as the successor trustee and Hickman Community Church as the new heir, they said.

Porter and Craig survived an accident in March 2002 when Porter’s pickup veered off the road and struck an oak tree. The two crashed again in April 2004, and Craig died.

The sheriff’s department began investigating after friends voiced their suspicions about Craig’s death, but the case was held up as the district attorney’s office focused on the high-profile case of Scott Peterson, who sentenced to death in 2004 for killing his wife and their unborn son, said Detective Mark Copeland.

Porter resigned from Hickman Community Church last year “to protect the church from further negative focus,” according to an ad the church placed in The Modesto Bee. His son, Aaron Porter, took over, but also resigned recently.

A civil lawsuit filed by Craig’s family against Porter is making its way through the courts.

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