Erich Kussman strode across a stage in a cap and gown Saturday and became the Rev. Kussman, earning a master of divinity in Lutheran studies from Princeton Theological Seminary.

It’s been quite a transformation for the 38-year-old, who as recently as 2013 was inmate 380556c in the New Jersey state prison system.

“Pastors from all over the world come to train here, and here I was this scrappy kid from Plainfield. I felt like a fish out of water,” Kussman said recently of his journey from prisoner to the pulpit.

Erich Kussman in a prison photo, and standing before a pulpit as a Princeton student in 2018.

“I don’t have it all together and I probably will never have it all together, but I know I have a God who cares and walks with me, and that inspires me and I’d like for other people to see that too.”

The Plainfield native says prison, and a clerical mistake, are the reason he’s a practicing preacher today.

His criminal conviction stemmed from what he calls a “a night of haywire,” which started during a bar fight in which he stabbed another man and stole his shoes and threw them in a creek, in 2002.

He’d grown up in poverty, dropped out of high school in his freshman year and was constantly getting nabbed for fighting. His mother was a drug addict and Kussman said did not know his father. Childhood memories consisted of breaking into houses for food.

Following his arrest, and charged with several felonies - assault, robbery, weapon possession - Kussman rejected plea offers for 16, 18 and even 22 years behind bars, he says

However, his criminal path was altered, he says, by 32 hours of mistaken freedom from the Somerset County jail in 2004. (The story generated more headlines than his original arrest.)

“Everybody in prison prays to get out, but for that to happen to me, I don’t believe in coincidences,” Kussman said.

“I’ll never forget," Kussman recalls.

"It was snowing but I got locked up in some shorts. I walked out the street from jail to the courthouse and saw a man standing at the fountain and he looked lost and I asked him if he needed directions. He turned around and said no son you’re lost and you don’t know Jesus.”

Police found Kussman, he was sent back to jail, and eventually sentenced to prison for 12 years, with a 10-year minimum.

This time, instead of cursing at his fellow prisoners who hosted Bible study sessions in his cell, he thought about the man he met, and started to listen.

Soon, Kussman joined the prison chaplaincy and met Rev. Emmanuel Bourjolly, a chaplain who worked with inmates at Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Burlington County.

Bourjolly, who also studied at Princeton Theological, in 2005 told a then 25-year-old Kussman, who had 10 years left to serve, that he would one day graduate from the seminary as well.

“Erich had the ability to understand and listen, and I told him (the seminary) would be more to him than prison,” Bourjolly said.

The two became more like father and son. Once he was released into a halfway house, Bourjolly helped Kussman apply for his GED and enroll in Pillar College, in Somerset County, formerly known as Somerset Christian College.

He was the school’s first student who’s been incarcerated, and blossomed into being elected student-body president.

“One of the things that impacted me the most was Erich’s testimony. He was always a fighter, fighting for the rights of students from immigration rights to a new sound system," said one of Kussman’s classmates, Roberto Tovar, 35, of Lawrence. “He was a great leader and a person that as there for us whenever we needed help."

After graduating from Pillar, Bourjolly followed through on a promise to help Kussman get into the seminary, and the former prisoner soon got received his acceptance letter.

Erich Kussman at the Princeton Theological Seminary 2019 Commencement. (Photo Courtesy of Dave Orantes)

For the past few years, he’s spent his time preaching at a Paterson church as well as serving as a mentor, like John Byrd, a recovering alcoholic and former convict who says Kussman helped to change his life

“When you run the streets for so long, you’re accustomed to nobody caring", said Byrd who now lives in Pennsylvania and works as a chef.

“He never once said he couldn’t be there. He took me to the (motor vehicle office) to get my license and sat all day with me. He was at my weight lifting competitions too. I mean it’s just everyday just him being that friend and watching him live his life, I thought maybe I should try that," he said.

Kussman had a full plate other than his studies too.

He runs Ransom Writers and Speakers, which he co-founded to help previously incarcerated people, and he’s also gearing up to transition from preaching in Paterson to a new Lutheran congregation in Trenton.

He’s also a father to five children, including a 13-year-old and a 9-year-old with his wife, Ashley Kussman, whom he met while she was volunteering as a psychologist.

Their relationship is also somewhat unlikely: she’s a former New York City police officer who patrolled the streets of Brooklyn.

“I guess we make a unlikely pair when you look at it, but when it comes to our hearts we don’t,” she says.

Taylor Tiamoyo Harris may be reached at tharris@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.