A former Tupelo youth pastor will spend a decade behind bars after pleading guilty to multiple child sex crimes.
27-year-old Alexander Blackwelder pleaded guilty to charges of sexual battery as a person of authority on Wednesday and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In March of 2023, Blackwelder was arrested by the Lee County Sheriff’s Department for sexual abuse charges in two separate jurisdictions.
It was his second arrest for a similar crime, coming under a month after he was first arrested by Tupelo Police for child enticement and two counts of sexual battery.
The initial arrest was tied to the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl while he was the youth pastor at East Main Street Church in Tupelo.
