Ex-principal pleads guilty to school sex charge

Larry Ray Jewell, 58, of 104 Queensbury Drive in Dunn, pleaded guilty to indecent liberties with a student. The charge stemmed from a 2006 incident with a male student at Southeast Raleigh High.

Jewell was arrested in February 2007 on 46 sex charges involving a youth who lived in his home. He pleaded guilty in September to 15 counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor in that case.

He resigned his position at the school just before his arrest.

Jewell had maintained his innocence in the Harnett County case, claiming the charges were in retaliation for his efforts to evict the accuser from his home.

After pleading guilty, he received three consecutive sentences of 16 to 20 months in prison, followed by three consecutive suspended sentences of the same length and up to five years on supervised probation.

He was sentenced to six to eight months in prison on the Wake County charge, authorities said. The sentence will be served at the same time as the others.

Jewell must register with the state as a sex offender and complete a program for sex offenders as part of his sentence. He also has been ordered not to have unsupervised contact with anyone under age 18.