SAGINAW, MI — A former substitute teacher and coach for Birch Run Area Schools is to spend the next year in jail for sending lewd and explicit messages to an underage student. It’s a situation he hoped to avoid by going back on the plea deal he willingly accepted months ago.

His sentencing judge said there’s no doubt the defendant is guilty of the crimes to which he pleaded.

Alex J. Helm, 28, on Thursday, Dec. 4, appeared before Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson for sentencing. Helm in August pleaded no contest to distributing sexually explicit matter to children and using a computer to commit a crime. Prosecutors dismissed a second charge of each count.

Before Jackson imposed sentence, the mother of Helm’s teenage victim addressed the court.

“This really disgusts me because

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