A man accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys at a middle school in Charles County, Maryland, and attempting to transmit HIV has pleaded guilty to some charges.
Carlos Bell pleaded guilty on Friday to more than 27 counts related to molesting children who range in age from 11 to 17. He agreed to a sentence of as much as 190 years, officials say.
In November, he pleaded not guilty to 10 federal child porn charges.
Bell was indicted in Charles County last year on 206 charges involving the sexual abuse of 42 victims.
He worked at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Waldorf. Investigators say he has HIV and tried to transmit the virus. Police said they are not aware of any victims who became HIV-positive.
Child pornography was found on Bell's personal electronic devices, Charles County Sherrif Troy Berry previously said, including graphic images of Bell sexually assaulting children.
To convict Bell, prosecutors spent hours watching "the type of video nobody wants to see," Charles County State's Attorney Tony Covington said at a news conference Friday.
"You can't unsee it," he said.
Before Bell worked in schools, he was an aspiring fashion stylist who appeared on a reality TV show, people who knew him told News4. He was a contestant on the short-lived CBS show "The Job." He competed, unsuccessfully, in an episode that aired in 2013 for an editorial assistant position at Cosmopolitan magazine.
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Bell was identified after a parent noticed suspicious text messages on a child's phone in December 2016, according to police statements in July 2017.
Bell had worked as an instructional assistant at Stoddert Middle School, which included working with some students with special needs. He also had worked as a track coach at La Plata High School. He had worked for Charles County schools since fall 2014. He also had worked at J.P. Ryon Elementary School in Waldorf and had been a track coach at Maurice J. McDonough High School in Pomfret. He stopped working for Charles County Public Schools on Dec. 22, 2016.
Bell is set to be sentenced in March. He still faces federal charges, to which officials in Charles County said he is expected to plead guilty.
Federal prosecutors filed charges in 2016 in another high-profile child exploitation case. The federal prosecution of Deonte Carraway, a former Prince George’s County elementary school aide, yielded a 75-year prison sentence against Carraway, before Prince George’s County’s prosecution closed.
