A small, 27-year-old weirdo who posed as a teenager and sexually assaulted high school students sat expressionless in a Nebraska courtroom as he learned he would spend the rest of his life in prison for his sex crimes.
For 54 days in 2023, Zachary Shaich “blended in with the other students” and attended classes at Southeast High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, posing as 17-year-old “Zach Hess,” where he carried out his vile, predatory attacks.
Shaich was sentenced Wednesday to 85 to 120 years in prison for felony charges including two counts of enticement of a child by electronic communication device, two counts of first-degree sexual assault/indecent assault and one count of attempted second-degree felony.
He was originally charged with nine felony counts, but the charges were reduced in a plea deal in July.
The pedophile will be eligible for parole after 41 years. Judge Darla Ideus commuted 419 days of Shaich's prison time.
“They knew not to talk to adult men on social media, they knew not to meet alone with adult men and they knew how to protect themselves from such dangers,” Ideus said during the sentence. Cologne reports.
“They didn't know how to protect themselves from you. Again, they considered you an ally. They considered you their friend. And you had earned their trust.”
According to the media, Shaikh created a fake birth certificate, vaccination records and an “elaborate biography” to hatch a plan to enroll in high school.
He enlisted the help of an accomplice, 23-year-old Angela Navarro, and enrolled at Lincoln Northwest High School before transferring to Southeast High School, where he pretended to be her mother when he solicited “pornographic material” from female students.
Between February and March 2023, Shaihi allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to students aged 13 and 14.
He also attempted to arrange for a 13-year-old girl to meet for sex, encouraging her to send him nude photographs and sending her money. KETV reported: Citing the arrest warrant.
Shaich was arrested at a local library on July 20, 2023, after police received information that a suspected impersonator posing as “Zach Hess” had been contacting female students by phone and computer.
The 5-foot-4, 120-pound monster, a 2015 graduate of Southeast High School, reportedly cost Lincoln Public Schools $6,000.
The school district had been facing questions about how a man in his mid-20s was able to enroll following his arrest last year.
School Safety Director Joe Wright said the minimum requirements for enrollment in a public high school are a birth certificate, immunization records and transcripts.
At the sentencing, Deputy County Attorney Amber Scholte described Schaich as “a predator of the worst kind.”
“He targeted, lured and seduced these women through social media,” Scholte said, “while posing as their companion, friend or in some cases their lover. And he did so for his own sexual purposes and gratification.”
Navarro, who was operating under the alias Daniel Hess, was arrested and charged with impersonation.
She pleaded not guilty in April and was released on $450 bail.
