Wife of Former High School Football Coach Pleads Guilty to Raping 16-Year-Old

A former high school football coach’s wife in Tennessee pleaded guilty to raping a 16-year-old who played on her husband’s team.

Kelsey McCarter, 27, pleaded guilty to six counts of statutory rape and one count of exploitation of a minor by electronic means, WATE reports.

McCarter faced up to 38 years behind bars before she accepted a plea deal where she would plead guilty in exchange for accepting the minimum sentence of three years in prison.

She will be eligible for release if she serves 30 percent of her sentence.

“She made a mistake,” her attorney, Doug Trant, told the Knoxville News-Sentinel after the hearing. “She’ll move past it. She’s young, and as you saw, her family is here in support of her. Her husband is strongly supportive of her.”

Prosecutors say McCarter had sex with the 16-year-old football player at her home while under her care between February 1, 2015, and December 31, 2015, including when she drove the student back to his home to live with his family.

Justin McCarter, Kelsey McCarter’s husband and the student’s football coach at South-Doyle High School, invited the student to live with him and his wife after the teen started having behavioral problems such as skipping class, according to the victim’s mother.

The victim’s mother said the coach offered to mentor the boy while he lived with the couple. His older brother also lived with the couple, but no allegations of abuse against him have been reported.

USA Today reports that a judge ordered McCarter to return to court October 30 to surrender to the authorities.