After being found guilty in December of grooming students for sexual purposes, former Mississippi teacher Toshemie Wilson has been sentenced to 192 years in prison.
Wilson, who taught at Amory High School, was convicted on eight counts of using students to produce sexually explicit material through his capacity as an advisor of a student group called Technology Students of America.
Between 2005 and 2014, Wilson would groom students before offering them money or drugs in exchange for sexually explicit videos and pictures. Of the eight unnamed witnesses who testified against the 48-year-old, multiple claimed Wilson had them make the material in certain places on campus such as the school bathroom. The predator also rented an office space for the sole purpose of having underage individuals partake in sexual acts there.
Several of the victims said Wilson encouraged them to make videos or take pictures in public places such as a Walmart bathroom. They vouched that out-of-town field trips were often used by Wilson to induce them into creating more content.
Wilson, who admitted to owning all the material before disposing of the hard drive, was ordered by a judge on Wednesday to pay over $123,000 to the victims on top of the virtual life sentence.
“Parents and children should be able to trust teachers, and Toshemie Wilson profoundly betrayed that trust and deserves every hour of every day that he spends in prison,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner, who prosecuted the case alongside Assistant U.S. Attorneys Parker S. King and Clyde McGee.
“I cannot say enough about the courage of the victims who came forward, and I commend AUSA Parker King for leading the prosecution and the efforts of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, the FBI, and our local law enforcement partners. Wilson is now exactly where he belongs.”
The case was part of a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006 called Project Safe Childhood, which serves to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse in the U.S.
