Former substitute who pleaded guilty to sex crimes now faces a new indictment

A Gautier man serving a 20-year-sentence for sex crimes against minors was indicted on a charge of making a false bomb threat.

22-year-old Keshawn Belcher was indicted in September and returned to Jackson County to face that indictment on Thursday.

A Jackson County grand jury said that on September 9, 2024, while he was an inmate in the Jackson County jail, Belcher sent an email reporting that bombs had been placed in Pascagoula and at the jail — knowing that the report was false.

After pleading guilty, Belcher was sentenced on August 19, 2024 to 15 years on one count of touching a child for lustful purposes and 40 years — with 20 suspended — on each of five counts of exploitation of a child. The sentences are running concurrently.

Belcher had been working as a substitute teacher at Ocean Springs Middle School when he sent sexually explicit videos via SnapChat to students and admitted to kissing a 13-year-old on the mouth while the two were alone in a classroom.

Belcher was at the Jackson County jail awaiting transfer to the Mississippi Department of Corrections when the email was allegedly sent.