LARGO, Fla. (Court TV) — After over three weeks of testimony and bank records that suggest the Rev. Henry Lyons misused funds intended for the National Baptist Convention USA, jurors heard closing arguments in the the embattled minister's racketeering trial.

Lyons, the president of the National Baptist Convention USA, is on trial with Convention public relations director Bernice Edwards for racketeering and grand theft. Investigators allege that Lyons and Edwards siphoned millions of dollars intended for the National Baptist Convention into secret bank accounts and used the money to buy diamonds, designer clothes, luxury cars and a $700,000 waterfront home.

During two weeks of prosecution testimony, witnesses said Lyons and Edwards courted companies seeking to do business with the church organization and spent their money on expensive homes, jewelry and cars.

Lyons has denied all the allegations, but opted not to testify at his state trial because he still faces a federal trial in the spring. But Edwards was on the stand three days denying the criminal charges and the allegations of an affair with Lyons.

But due to an error by her attorney, Edwards was unable to prevent jurors from learning about her conviction for embezzlement in 1993, which could damage her credibility. On Friday, Edwards' attorney Paul Sisco asked her if she had been convicted of a 1992 felony and a 1980 misdemeanor grand theft. Before then, prosecutors had not been allowed to mention Edwards' embezzlement conviction. Noting Sisco's tactical error, the judge ruled that he could not identify one specific conviction without mentioning the other and forced Edwards to admit to previous embezzlement before the jury.

Although Edwards expressed regret for her prior convictions on the stand, this may not help when jurors starting deliberating her case. And perhaps, neither will Lyons' failure to testify. Prosecutors were expected to emphasize Lyons' love of a luxurious lifestyle, his initial failure to forward money intended to help black churches destroyed by arson, and his use of an allegedly inflated 8.5 million estimate of his congregation to attract companies and their money.

They were also expected to focus on an alleged secret bank account Lyons used to defraud several companies out of $5 million over a two-year period. The account, called the Baptist Builder's Fund, was not listed in the NBC audits, and its existence did not become known until Lyons' attorneys presented his defense.

Lyons' defense is expected to stress that he never misused church funds, was only following the normal business practices of his predecessors and that he never intended to conceal any bank accounts. His lawyers may focus on the previous testimony of three convention pastors who attempted to give jurors insight into the business practices of the NBC. One witness, Lacy Curry, said that Lyons was free to make deals with corporations that wanted to profit from the NBC's congregation and that there was nothing wrong with him reaping some of the rewards of the deals. That, Curry claimed, is the way past Convention presidents have operated. The Rev. E.V. Hill, a member of the convention's ethics commission that investigated Lyons, told jurors that he found no incriminating evidence after studying the organization's bank accounts.

However, in their closings, prosecutors can counter Hill testimony with his admission that the commission's investigation lasted only two weeks and that it did not talk to any of the corporations that claim Lyons swindled them out of money.

Closing arguments are expected to last through Wednesday. If convicted of the charges, Lyons could face up to 30 years in prison.

Court TV's Bryan Robinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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