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On Friday, NBC News reported that a Florida pastor accused of ripping off $8 million in relief funds failed to appear in court as his health is reportedly in severe decline and he has lost the ability to speak.

"'There are grave medical concerns,' [attorney] Erin Hyde told a federal judge in Orlando on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by NBC News," reported Rich Schapiro and Laura Strickler. "Evan Edwards, 64, and his son Josh, 30, were arrested at their New Smyrna Beach home earlier in the day. They each face up to 30 years in prison if convicted on the top count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud."

The arrest occurred on Wednesday of this week. Their religious organization, ASLAN International Ministry, claimed a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, the COVID relief program set up in 2020 to pay businesses not to lay off employees. They claimed a $2.7 million monthly payroll with 500 employees.

According to federal officials, it's unclear whether ASLAN International Ministry actually employs anyone at all, and the father-son duo in fact used $3.7 million of the loan to buy a house in Orlando.

"What was supposed to be their first court appearance went sideways fast," said the report. "Evan Edwards was a no-show after he told officers he had medical issues and refused to get in his wheelchair in a court holding cell, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kara Wick told the judge. That prompted U.S. Magistrate Judge David Baker to ask his lawyer whether she had gotten the chance to speak to him."

"I have tried to, Your Honor," said Hyde, per the court transcript. "Mr. Edwards appears to be nonverbal. I don't know that he understood anything that I said. I didn’t get any responses from him. If he said a word or two, they were not words in a complete sentence or that were relevant to what I was talking about.”

According to the report, the judge then ordered Edwards submit to a medical evaluation.

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