An Ocean Springs substitute teacher who sent explicit videos to students and admitted in court to kissing a 13-year-old student pleaded guilty on Monday and will spend two decades in prison, the Jackson County District Attorney said in a news release.
Keshawn Trevyune Belcher, 22, of Gautier, pleaded guilty to one count of touching of a child for lustful purposes and five counts of exploitation of a child after he sent students videos of him masturbating and asked students to meet and “cuddle,” the news release said.
Circuit Court Judge Kathy King Jackson sentenced Belcher to 15 years for touching a child for lustful purposes. She sentenced him to concurrent terms of 40 years with 20 years suspended on the child exploitation counts, and he will serve a 20-year sentence without the possibility of early release, the District Attorney said.
Jackson also required Belcher to register for a sex offender for the rest of his life after his release.
“This defendant had a responsibility to look out for the well-being of his students,” District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said in the release. “Instead, he chose to prey on them and to use his position of authority to solicit sexual favors.”
Belcher was a substitute teacher hired through an outside agency to work at Ocean Springs Middle School in April 2023, Assistant District Attorney Carolyn Lewis said.
He worked at the school for less than a week. But he shared his Snapchat with students and asked to connect with them on the social media platform, the news release said.
He asked students for videos of masturbation, and asked to meet for sexual purposes, Lewis said.
In his guilty plea, Belcher told the court he kissed the 13-year-old on the mouth while he was alone in a classroom with the student, the news release said.
McIlrath praised the “quick action” of Ocean Springs students to expose Belcher’s “sexual deviance.”
“Their bravery prevented the abuse from escalating further, protected other children and ensured that the defendant was held accountable for his crimes,” she said.
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