Watertown tenant with history of painting biblical quotes arrested Friday for allegedly causing over $40k in damage to apartment

Ben Muir, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read

Jan. 21—WATERTOWN — A man who has a history of damaging apartments and painting biblical quotes on the walls was arrested again on Friday after allegedly causing more than $40,000 in damage.

Mark R. Stewart, 61, of 521 Jefferson St., was charged by city police with second-degree criminal mischief. He was arrested Friday morning and appeared for an arraignment hearing in the afternoon, after which he was held in jail without bail.

In July 2021, Mr. Stewart was renting an apartment from Cardmen Gee at 310 S. Massey St. when he allegedly caused extensive damage to the unit, as well as painting all over the walls. The estimated repair cost is $40,866.16, according to city police.

Mr. Stewart had rented Mr. Gee's apartment for roughly nine months, the landlord said in September when a criminal investigation into Mr. Stewart was getting started. The fully furnished apartment — which Mr. Gee offers to soldiers — was turned into what looked like a mangled construction site. A plastic tarp was hung in a hallway. The door to the refrigerator was ripped off. A smiley face made of charcoal medallions was left on the floor. The bathtub was broken, as well as the chimney.

The paintings mainly consisted of what appear to be posters for Jimmy Swaggart's ministries, with phone numbers and addresses at the bottom. Mr. Swaggart was a pastor in Baton Rouge, La., whose ministry TV show was popular in the 1970s before he was defrocked by the Assemblies of God for a sex scandal involving prostitutes in 1988.

Mr. Stewart pleaded guilty in 2014 to a felony attempted criminal mischief count, admitting he caused more than $5,000 in damage to an apartment on Washington Street. He was sentenced in that matter to five years of probation and ordered to pay $500 to the property owner and $26,177 to the property owner's insurance carrier in the form of a civil judgment.

In 2009, Mr. Stewart was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $5,800 in restitution after damaging an apartment on LeRay Street. In 2013, Mr. Stewart was arrested in Baton Rouge and charged with entering and remaining at Mr. Swaggart's ministry campus after having been banned from the property.