Pastor targeted by Wynonna Judd's daughter Grace Kelley breaks his silence on church van theft

A young pastor says he may have inadvertently driven Wynonna Judd's 'drugged-up' daughter to his rural Virginia home while his three kids were in the vehicle.

Grace Kelley, 28, was arrested on October 27 for allegedly stealing a $3,800 van from Kent Hart, 31, leader of the Ground Zero Church of the Nazarene in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

The vehicle was only recovered after a dramatic chase during which Hart pursued Kelley while wearing just his pajamas. She is accused of crashed into a ditch and fleeing into the woods in what police believe was a 'drug-fueled' rampage. 

On Thursday, Hart told DailyMail.com the 'crazy' inside story of how he claims Kelley could have ended up at his rural Scottsville home, which sits 20 minutes away from the nearest town. 

The father-of-three said October 27 started as an ordinary day watching his 12-year-old son play baseball after church.

The pastor says he left his trailer unlocked after fetching blankets for cold spectators. He claims Kelley could have then crept inside undetected. 

'I have no idea how she got to Charlottesville. It blows my mind the more I think about it,' he told DailyMail.com. 

'It's likely that she was in Charlottesville and then she hopped in our trailer and rode home with us. 

'I think she must have got in at the ballpark. It would have been like six to eight miles from town to our house. But it's on country roads, so it takes about 20 minutes.' 

Hart said his suspicion is bolstered by the fact he found a bag and some shoes in the trailer which he believes belong to Kelley, who has a two-year-old daughter herself.  

The pastor said 'it is freaky to think' that Kelley was in his trailer while he was driving with his sons, aged 12 and three, and eight-year-old daughter home in the van, which he calls their 'church on wheels'.   

As the family settled in for a quiet evening in their pajamas, Hart said he was talking to his daughter in the kitchen when he noticed their van moving down the driveway. 

Realizing it could not be being driven by anyone in his family, the pastor leapt into his Chevrolet Yukon - still wearing his PJs - and pursued the van.

He managed to box Kelley in at the side of Rolling Road, still out in the country.  

'I'm like, "You stole my van, get out of my van," [while] beating on the door,' he said. 'And at this point, I see her very clearly. I saw her buzz cut and face tattoo.

'She didn't say anything. The window was shut. She looked at me as I was beating on the door and shook her head "no". I never heard her say a word.'

He says Kelley revved up the engine and drove away again, with the pastor following behind while dialing 911. 

'It looked to me like she could have been high, like she didn't really seem like she was completely in her right mind,' Hart said previously. 

Kelley drove off towards Virginia Route 20, until Albemarle police officer Corey Legg brought her to a stop around four miles away at Massie Branch Lane.

Legg wrote in a report that Kelley told police 'she had sold her soul to the devil' and that a male suspect had 'exited the driver seat and ran into the woods'. 

'I advised the jail staff that she may have taken something,' he wrote, per The Daily Progress. 

'I was later informed that the jail staff observed something inside of Ms Kelley during her body scan.' 

Legg said Kelley tested positive for heroin during tests at the University of Virginia Medical Center later that evening. It marks her latest run-in with the law. 

Hart launched a GoFundMe page to recoup the costs of the vehicle, which he said is needed to transport congregation members and equipment to Sunday services. 

He told DailyMail.com that Kelley totaled the van by ramming it into a ditch before managing to drive back out, dislodging a wheel in the process. 

'I never thought this would happen to me,' he told DailyMail.com. 'The fact we were all the way out in the country... 

'My place is about a mile off the road. We always viewed it as a bit of a sanctuary. 

'Nothing really happens here. It made me question reality. This is a safe place. 

'I'm thankful that Grace wasn't violent - but if somebody violent was in there it could have been bad. It could have been catastrophic.'

Hart added that he hopes the church will be part of Kelley's healing process. 

He said church members have been visiting the prison in the hopes of reaching out to her, while the congregation 'prays for her redemption' every Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Hart hopes he can get a new 'church on wheels' back on the road again soon.

'The van was damaged during the theft and after being inspected by a body shop, the insurance has determined it to be a total loss,' he wrote on his fundraising page. 

'The van was only valued at $3,800 and after the body shop fees and deductible we are only left with around $2,200. 

'We are a small church and cannot afford to buy another van in the current market.'

Despite the heavy blow to the community, Hart said he does not harbor any hard feelings toward Kelley. 

'We want the community to know that on a personal level, we have forgiven Grace Kelley,' he wrote, while quoting a passage from the Bible. 

Police told DailyMail.com Kelley is still being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. 

Kelley is the daughter of Wynonna and her first husband, Arch Kelley III, to whom she was wed from 1996-1998. 

She has previous convictions in Tennessee, where her mother's music career is centered, for methamphetamine production, evading arrest and driving while intoxicated.

The troubled 28-year-old also has pending cases in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee for charges including aggravated assault, trespassing, violation of a no-contact order, and failure to appear and allegations of probation violations.

She was last arrested in Carroll County, Georgia, in August on three misdemeanor counts: fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, driving with a suspended/revoked license and using motorcycle equipment improperly.

Before that, she was hit with a charge of soliciting for prostitution in Millbrook, Alabama.  

Kelley was accused of holding up a sign on a busy highway reading 'Ride for a Ride' while flashing her breasts and other intimate parts of her body, local police chief PK Johnson disclosed in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.