Sacramento County jurors on Tuesday convicted former Inderkum High School teacher Byron Charles Wallace on all 10 counts connected to sex he had with two teenage students in 2014. A stunned Wallace sank his head as jurors declared the popular former math teacher guilty on counts ranging from oral copulation with a minor to unlawful sexual intercourse, all tied to acts with two 17-year-old girls.
As family members watched from the gallery, Wallace sobbed as his attorney argued in front of Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurel White that he not be immediately taken into custody by Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies. Saying his client is not a flight risk, defense attorney David Bonilla said, “He’s not going to run because he has nowhere to go.”
Wallace faces a maximum of eight years in prison on the charges. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15.
Wallace, 35, was arrested in October 2015 following an investigation months earlier into a suspected relationship between him and a student who later told police about the liaisons.
A second student days after Wallace’s arrest told authorities that she, too, had engaged in sex with Wallace when she was 17.
A civil suit filed by one of the victims against Wallace and the Natomas Unified School District continues to wend its way through the courts.
