Ex-coach pleads guilty in sex case

By COLLEEN JENKINS, Times Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Jaymee Wallace coached girls basketball at Wharton.

TAMPA - Former Wharton High School teacher and coach Jaymee Wallace pleaded guilty Monday to having a sexual relationship with a student who played on her girls basketball team.

But Wallace rejected prosecutors' plea offer of three years in prison, hoping that Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett will heed the words he heard in court from the teenage victim:

"I don't want her to go to jail."

That decision won't be made until the Dec. 5 sentencing hearing.

Prosecutor Kimberly Hindman said the 19-month relationship began with a note Wallace attached to the almost 15-year-old student's math test in December 2002.

I think you're attractive, it said. Do you feel the same?

Notes progressed to trysts in Wallace's car, in her Tampa Palms apartment and near a running trail at the University of South Florida.

The encounters continued after Wallace, now 30, married teacher and coach Craig Wallace in June 2003. They have a 7-month-old boy.

No one witnessed sexual acts, but rumors flew. The teen's mother went to police after finding some notes to her daughter.

Wallace confessed to a close friend about the relationship, Hindman said, but asked the teen to lie when confronted by school officials.

Wallace was arrested in October 2005.

The prosecutor noted that the teen had voluntarily participated in the relationship. Hindman said the State Attorney's Office had to balance the victim's wishes for no jail time with its obligation to the public.

The teen spoke highly of Wallace,recalling how Wallace had helped her pull her algebra grade from an F to a B, how she taught her to use her left hand in basketball.

Now 19, she is in the military and won't be able to attend the sentencing.

Wallace could get30 years in prison on the two charges, lewd and lascivious battery, and unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Hindman said scoring guidelines call for nine years.

Outside the courtroom, reality set in.

The teen sobbed into a supporter's embrace.

Down the hall, Craig Wallace approached the teen's family.

"We are truly sorry," he told them. "It's just a horrible situation. We don't harbor negative feelings."

The teen's mother glared. What kind of negative feelings would you harbor, she asked.

Craig Wallace suggested that some witnesses had been untruthful.

The mother cut him off, saying, "That's the end of the conversation."

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at cjenkins@sptimes.com or 813 226-3337.

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 07:01:30]