Ex-Newport News assistant principal sentenced to 8 years for sexual misconduct involving Chesapeake student
CHESAPEAKE — A former Western Branch High School band teacher was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison for sexual misconduct involving a student.
The sentence issued by to Jason M. Taylor was two years longer than the maximum recommended by state sentencing guidelines, which suggest a punishment based on the circumstances of the crime and the defendant’s background.
Circuit Court Judge Andrew Kubovcik said while Taylor deserved credit for the many good things he’s done in his life, the “horrifying” facts of the case warranted a term above the guidelines.
The judge said he was especially troubled by the harm the victim and her family suffered. The victim wrote in her impact statement to the court she was hospitalized during her senior year of high school for suicidal thoughts. One of the hardest parts to deal with, she wrote, was seeing the devastating effect the case has had on her parents.
Taylor, 46, pleaded guilty in March to six counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop rape and sodomy chargesalso faced”] and promised to seek no more than 10 years in prison.
The abuse began in 2015 when the student was 14 or 15, according to prosecutors, and ended when she was 18.
It started with hugs and kisses on the forehead, then progressed to oral, anal and vaginal sex. Many of the sexual acts took place in a closet in the band room. Prosecutors said another former student of Taylor’s also came forward to report abuse that began when the student was 18. He was not charged in that case because the student was an adult.
Taylor left Western Branch in 2017. He was working as an assistant principal at Warwick High School in Newport News when he was arrested in November, after the victim reported the incidents to police.
More than two dozen character letters were sent to the court by Taylor’s family, friends, former co-workers at Warwick High School, as well as parents of some of his former students. The letters described him as a kind, caring, and compassionate person and teacher.
Defense attorney Shawn Cline asked Kubovcik to give Taylor a sentence at the low end of the guideline range, which was a little less than two years.
Cline pointed to Taylor’s exemplary service in the Navy, his remorse and his willingness to take responsibility for his actions as reasons for a lesser term. Before going into teaching, Taylor was in the Navy for eight years, where he served as a diver and in explosive ordnance disposal. He entered as an enlisted man and left as a lieutenant.
But Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Arielle Mitchell argued Taylor deserved a harsh sentence for using his position as a teacher to take advantage of a student, and for abusing her for so long.
“This wasn’t a one-time thing. This happened over the course of almost four years,” Mitchell said. “He preached integrity to his students and then he did this.”
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
