BUNNELL — Testimony during a fiery sentencing hearing Wednesday ranged from the intricacies of a $2-million Ponzi scheme to the defendant’s years spent jumping out of jets as an Army paratrooper.

In the end, Wes Brown, 54, a disgraced Flagler Beach pastor convicted of bilking several members of his former church out of more than $500,000, was sentenced to 7½ years in prison and 22½ years of probation.

Circuit Court Judge Dennis Craig handed down the sentence and ordered Brown to repay two of his Flagler County victims to culminate the nearly three-hour hearing inside the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center. Attorneys are expected to settle on restitution amounts for the other three victims in the scheme, which included two local churches where Brown recruited investors during an 18-month span between 2010 and 2012.

“He used his position of power, used his position of friendship, to steal and lie from people in his church,” Assistant State Attorney Tim Pribisco said. “That’s a reprehensible act and he deserves to be punished accordingly.”

A jury on Jan. 26 convicted Brown of 19 counts of embezzlement, grand theft and securities fraud at the end of a three-day trial.

(READ: Ex-Flagler Beach pastor guilty in fraud scheme)

Earlier this month, Craig vacated the four grand theft convictions after ruling they were double jeopardy to Brown’s more severe conviction for organized scheme to defraud.

Brown faced as much as 100 years behind bars and prosecutors were pushing for a 15-year prison sentence. But defense attorney Philip Bonamo and a quartet of Brown’s supporters argued that Craig should spare Brown jail time, citing his health complications and his inability to repay the victims from prison.

Craig said he factored Brown’s military service and health needs into his sentencing. Despite Brown testifying that he was remorseful, Craig said he felt Brown did not accept responsibility for his role in the embezzlement scheme, noting the defendant and his supporters still appeared to blame others for his misdeeds.

“He is trying to shift a large amount of the responsibility for the losses on the victims’ side,” the judge said. “What the court would’ve liked to have seen is the acceptance of some responsibility.”

During the January trial, Pribisco said Brown swindled six parishioners from a pair of Flagler County churches. Brown was an associate pastor who occasionally took the pulpit and led Bible studies at one of them, Calvary Chapel Flagler.

Pribisco said it was all part of a $2-million Ponzi scam that spanned from Naples to New York, with Brown convincing victims to invest in Maverick International Inc., a Delaware hedge fund of which his brother-in-law, Edward Rubin, was president.

Officials say Brown presented the company to victims as “a diversified private company that invested in precious metals and commodities.”

Testimony during the trial revealed Brown's background as a U.S. Army paratrooper who earned commendations in the 1980s while serving combat and reconnaissance missions in countries such as Egypt, Chad, Grenada and the Sudan. During an intense cross examination, Pribisco grilled Brown about his military record, including a weapons violation for which Brown was court marshaled, fined and demoted.

Brown testified that he was remorseful for the lost investments, many of which wiped away victims’ retirement nest eggs. But he spent much of his testimony blaming PFG Best, a financial firm that shut down in 2012 after its CEO was caught embezzling more than $200 million from the company. Prosecutors said Brown routed some of the investments through the futures brokerage.

Prosecutors are seeking $283,000 in restitution for five victims, many of whom were sitting in the courtroom Wednesday.

Pribisco said $584,209 of the Maverick investments went toward personal expenses such as gas, food, credit card bills and trips to Wal-Mart. About $475,000 came from an account Brown controlled, he said.

Pribisco also read a letter from James Durso, a local postal worker, who said Brown persuaded him to invest in Maverick while his wife was dying from cancer and he was struggling to earn extra money.

“I can’t help feeling deceived when I think about my wife battling cancer at the time this happened,” the letter stated. “And that Wes had his arm around me praying, while his other hand was in my pocket.”