Former Weld County teacher’s assistant faces new child sex crime charges at second school

WELD COUNTY, Colo. – A former teacher’s assistant already facing charges for allegedly having sex with one of her 14-year-old students faces new charges after she allegedly kissed and sent explicit photos to a 6th-grade student at Prairie Heights Middle School in Evans.

Jerica Zoe Enriquez, 25, faces four new charges for the alleged indiscretions uncovered after her previous arrest in December: sexual exploitation of children, two counts of internet sexual exploitation of a child, and criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a child.

According to her latest arrest affidavit, a teacher at Prairie Heights contacted an Evans police officer in early January to report that she had heard a student talking about a teacher “sleeping with” and kissing one of the students.

The alleged contact happened during the 2015-16 school year, when the victim was in 6th grade.

According to the affidavit, Enriquez noticed the victim on his first day of school that year and immediately asked about him and where he lived. When he asked Enriquez why she was asking him such personal questions, she replied, “Sorry.”

Later in the school year, the two were alone together again, and Enriquez started staring at the boy and moving closer and closer toward him.

He asked about her behavior, according to the affidavit, to which she again replied, “Sorry.”

But she continued inching her face closer to his, even though he “thought it was weird,” according to the affidavit, so he kissed her, saying he wanted to “see how it was” to kiss a woman not his age.

Enriquez allegedly replied, “That was sexy.”

According to the affidavit, Enriquez offered to have sex with the boy, but he refused. He also refused advances by Enriquez in which she tried to take him home from school, despite his mother being on her way to give him a ride.

At the end of the school year, Enriquez told the boy she would miss him, according to the affidavit.

At some point, though it’s unclear whether it happened during the school year or after, Enriquez allegedly sent two Snapchat photos to the boy: one in which she was wearing only underwear, and another in which she was nude and exposing her breasts and genitals, according to the affidavit.

She already faced charges of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and obscenity to a minor charges in the previous case. She worked at Jefferson Middle School while that incident allegedly occurred. 

She is set to appear in court for status conferences in both cases Friday morning in Weld County.