A former school counselor from North Carolina broke down in tears as she learned her fate after she pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor student.
Jessica Finley, who previously worked as a counselor and volleyball coach at McDowell High School in Marion, was sentenced to serve a maximum of 40 years in prison with a minimum of 28 years for having sex with an underage girl during a hearing on April 16.
Finley reportedly cried as she learned her sentence and apologized for putting the girl, who was just 14 years old when she started grooming her, through the upsetting experience.
“I would just like to say I am so sorry for my actions and the things I have caused, for pain I have caused, for the [victim’s] family, my family and my own children,” she told the court, per McDowell News.
The victim’s sister called Finley “a predator,” accusing her of “lurking behind the walls of the counseling office, waiting for a victim.”
“We would have beat the door hinges off that building to save her from that monster,” the victim’s mom also said in a victim impact statement, according to McDowell News.
The grooming began when the victim initially turned to Finley for help with anxiety during her freshman year of high school from 2023-2024.
Their relationship eventually turned sexual and they reportedly started sending text messages that “discussed details of their sexual encounters, as well as acts they wanted to perform on each other in the future,” according to court documents viewed by WLOS.
Prosecutors claimed that the sex acts between Finley and the victim mostly took place when the girl turned 15.
Finley allegedly told the girl she was “leaving her husband and children to be with Minor Child 1,” according to court documents.
The girl’s parents found the texts that the victim exchanged with Finley and forwarded them to authorities, and the counselor resigned from her position in February 2024.
The girl revealed that Finley performed sex acts on her in her office, as well as kissed her on the lips. She also said that she tried to stop seeing Finley, though she said she felt trapped after the counselor allegedly threatened to take her own life.
After she was arrested, Finley rejected a plea deal in April 2025. However, she later pleaded guilty to 16 sex crime charges that included carrying out a sex act with a student, as well as offenses involving a child under the age of 15.
If you know of a young person who is being exploited or are the victim of a crime, you are urged to report it to your local FBI field office by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tips can also be left at tips.fbi.gov
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