{"id":234007,"date":"2026-04-03T21:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/234007\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T21:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:09:06","slug":"former-south-texas-coach-gets-30-years-for-trying-to-entice-14-year-old-florida-boy-on-snapchat-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/234007\/","title":{"rendered":"Former South Texas coach gets 30 years for trying to entice 14\u2011year\u2011old Florida boy on Snapchat, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/texas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">South Texas<\/a> high school coach has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attempting to entice a 14\u2011year\u2011old Florida boy on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Snapchat<\/a>, federal prosecutors said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Kenneth Wayne Mulkey, 44, a former high school teacher and coach in Sabinal, received the sentence after being convicted of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Sabinal is a small city in Uvalde County in South Texas, sitting along U.S. Highway 90 about 60 miles west of San Antonio and roughly 22 miles east of Uvalde.<\/p>\n<p>Snapchat messages and geolocation<\/p>\n<p>During conversations with someone he believed to be 14 and from Orlando, Mulkey identified himself as a 40\u2011year\u2011old football and track coach and requested sexually explicit photos, the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office said.<\/p>\n<p>Geolocation data placed him within 40 meters of Sabinal High School during the initial messages. The next day, he sent a sexually graphic photo of himself and continued explicit communication, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>Mulkey was arrested on Jan. 31, 2025, indicted on Feb. 19, 2025, and pleaded guilty to one of two counts on Aug. 11, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Breach of trust cited<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons said the case reflects how deeply communities rely on educators and coaches to safeguard children. He praised investigators for ensuring that a predator who violated that trust will remain in federal prison for decades.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I applaud our law enforcement partners who investigated this matter and ensured a child predator who had infiltrated our education system remains in federal prison for the next three decades,&#8221; Simmons said.<\/p>\n<p>Investigation and federal program<\/p>\n<p>Homeland Security Investigations led the case, working alongside deputies from the Orange County Sheriff&#8217;s Office in Florida and the Uvalde County Sheriff&#8217;s Office in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood, a Justice Department program launched in 2006 to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts to combat online child exploitation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former South Texas high school coach has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attempting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2118,430,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-234007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-child-abuse","tag-north-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}