A Nebraska man who posed as a high schooler for two months to sexually abuse teenagers was sentenced on Wednesday to serve the rest of his life in prison, KOLN reported.
Zachary Scheich, a 27-year-old who stands at five feet, four inches tall and weighs just 120 pounds, according to Nebraska station KLKN, pretended to be a 17-year-old student at Southeast High School and Lincoln Southeast High School named “Zak Hess” for 54 days in 2023.
Scheich, who graduated from Southeast in 2015, was arrested in July 2023 after authorities found out he was attending classes at the public schools and engaged in inappropriate relationships with minor students.
Investigators said he requested “pornographic material” and sex from a 13-year-old girl and sent explicit messages to a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old student.
“He targeted, groomed and lured them via social media,” Deputy County Attorney Amber Scholte said during his sentencing. “He did so under the guise of being their peer, their friend, and in some cases, their boyfriend. “And he did so for his own sexual purpose and gratification.”
Scholte added that Scheich is a “predator of the worst kind.”
The man fabricated documents and an “elaborate backstory” to pass as a fellow teenager, prosecutors said.
An associate of his, 23-year-old Angela Navarro, was also arrested in September 2023 on suspicions of helping Scheich get enrolled by posing as his mother under the alias “Danielle Hess.”
“Police said that once they’d discovered Scheich’s fictitious identity, they contacted Navarro on June 1, 2023, who insisted on their false identities,” KOLN reported.
Scheich was sentenced to serve 85 to 120 years behind bars, to be eligible for parole after 41 years, on two counts of child enticement with electronic communication device, two counts of first-degree sexual assault/forcible touching, and an attempt of class two felony.
He originally faced nine felonies but took a plea deal in July to get rid of some of them.
“They knew not to speak with an adult male on social media. They knew not to meet an adult male by themselves, they knew how to defend themselves against that kind of danger,” Judge Darla Ideus said during the Wednesday hearing.
“They did not know how to protect themselves against you. Because again, they thought you were their peer. Their friend. And because you gained their trust.”
Scheich’s alleged accomplice, Navarro, has pleaded not guilty to felony criminal impersonation and was released from jail after $450 bail in April, the New York Post reported.
KOLN also reported that the crimes cost the Lincoln Public Schools district $6,000.
“In light of this incident, LPS is reviewing our enrollment procedures,” the district said in a statement obtained by KLKN after Scheich’s arrest.
