A suburban Kansas City substitute teacher has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sending sexually explicit messages to girls at Belton Middle School and molesting a child in a separate incident.
Jason L. Carey, 43, of Belton, was handed the sentence Wednesday morning in Cass County Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty in October to two counts of enticement of a child under the age of 15.
Carey, who has been held in the county jail for 14 months, also pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors and six other felonies, which included molestation of a child under 12 years old.
The child molestation was reported to authorities as Carey was under investigation for the crimes stemming from his first and only week working at Belton Middle.
Carey’s prison sentences for the other convictions, including 15 years for second-degree child molestation, were set to run concurrently.
The case was investigated by Belton police. In September 2022, a school resource officer at Belton Middle School was told by a student that inappropriate messages were being sent by a substitute teacher.
Police learned Carey — who went by “thundergod714” and “thunder_god7” on Snapchat — had been sending messages and videos to a group of girls who had gathered for a sleepover days earlier.
Screenshots of text messages were shared with police. They were sexually explicit, including one that expressed a desire to “come play.”
Police were also shown four video messages of a man masturbating. One of those videos “clearly” showed Carey’s face and a distinctive tattoo on his shoulder and bicep, according to court documents.
Two of the middle school students interviewed by authorities said they added Carey as a friend on social media as he was known to them as a substitute teacher. Both described receiving inappropriate messages from him soon afterward.
Another 8-year-old child told investigators of sexual abuse that occurred during a visit to Carey’s residence in August 2022, roughly one month before police began investigating.
The child described knowing Carey as having worked “at her old school,” according to court documents.
School district officials have said Carey worked for a third-party contracted to hire its substitutes and had passed required state background checks.
Before then, Carey worked in Belton’s School-Age Childcare, an after-school program offered for children kindergarten through 6th grade.
Records with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education show the criminal allegations surfaced less than two weeks after Carey obtained a certificate to substitute teach. His license expires in 2026.
The Star’s Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.