JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The plea deal for a St. Johns County homebuilder who is accused of embezzling millions of dollars and abandoning projects in Nocatee was rejected on Tuesday after objections by alleged victims who thought the original plea deal wasn’t strong enough.
It was a surprising twist in the case against Spencer Calvert, the former owner of the Pineapple Corporation.
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In the rejected plea deal, Calvert’s attorney said that he would pay $1,474,000 in restitution in monthly payments once he gets out of prison, which would have been a five-year sentence. He intended to pay $150,000 upfront to the victims. Calvert was also expected to do 50 hours of community service and surrender his license.
But the terms of that deal were rejected.
“The deal feels like a slap in the face,” one alleged victim said.
After two hours of negotiations, the state came back and offered Calvert 10 years in prison and $650,000 in restitution to be split among the 13 victims instead of $150,000 for each victim.
But the defense rejected that deal, so a pretrial date was set for April 9 at 9 a.m.
Felix Reznick, a victim, said that Calvert offered $5,000 for him to go away.
“Our attorneys made numerous attempts to rectify the situation and [Calvert] fought and put up barriers every step of the way,” Reznick said.
Calvert, 53, was arrested in 2024.
Prosecutors said Calvert duped more than a dozen Nocatee homeowners out of money, including Capt. Sandy Yawn, the star of the hit Bravo show “Below Deck Mediterranean,” and her wife, Leah.
“Our lives were turned upside down and we were suddenly facing the possibility of losing our home entirely,” Leah Yawn said. “Spencer even offered to actually buy our house back from us…We no longer have financial resources, we could not afford a lawyer.”
Leah Yawn said she and her partner had to figure out how to finish the home on their own, which is still not finished.
Capt. Sandy Yawn said that Calvert took everything from them.
“You lied to us, you promised us,” she said. “You acted like you were our friend, that you wanted to help us, and you destroyed us, every one of us and you stay here and you still live in your home. Well, we have wires hanging from our house.”
Colin Crebbs paid Calvert $240,000 on a building contract in Dec. 2022. He said six months later, he was told he needed to pay $200,000 in upgrade fees to get his permits. Crebbs said he had to dig into his savings to pay that fee to Calvert and he didn’t get a response for weeks.
“This isn’t just a theft of myself, but this is my austerity,” Crebbs said. “This is money that I earned and my children lost…I lost family time, I lost peace, I had contention in my home caused by this…”
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Calvert had contracts with customers to build homes in Nocatee from 2019-2023, but the homes were never finished. A total of 13 victims came forward and reported their experiences.
According to investigators, Calvert got millions of dollars in deposits from customers to build their custom homes and misappropriated over $15 million. Finishing building their homes with new contractors was expected to cost the victims over $17 million.
The Sheriff’s Office said Calvert also failed to pay subcontractors, and that caused more than $900,000 in liens to be filed against the alleged victims.
He was charged with embezzling construction funds, grand larceny of $100,000 or more and an organized scheme to defraud.
Investigators said a total of $2,238,000 was stolen or embezzled from homeowners, and $1,387,000 was owed to subcontractors for work performed for the Pineapple Corporation.
Investigators said those were just some of the eight different ways Calvert used the company’s money for his own personal use.
The report also said Calvert took more than $900,000 as a loan from the company, but investigators didn’t find any documents stating the terms of the loan.
More than $476,000 was converted to his personal Bank of America account disguised as American Express reimbursements, and $569,000 was said to be used for expenses with model homes, but investigators said that also went to his account.
He’s also accused of paying himself a salary of more than $700,000.
Most notable in the list of his AMEX charges is the $19,152 he spent on Jaguars tickets in 2022.
Out of 134 payments on Calvert’s American Express accounts between 2019 and 2024, investigators wrote in the report that “42% of the charges were for what appear to be legitimate construction-related activities,” but approximately “58% of the charges appear to be for restaurants, sporting events, furniture stores, plane charters, and liquor retailers.”
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