Former Cottonwood Teacher Pleads Guilty To Sex Crimes Including Videotaping Students As They Changed Clothes

A former Cottonwood teacher, Chester Clay Cox, pled guilty to fifteen sex crimes, including Sexual Conduct with a minor under the age of fifteen, Child Molestation, multiple counts of Sexual Exploitation of a minor under the age of fifteen, and multiple counts of Surreptitious Photographing or Videotaping.

The terms of the plea agreement require the 31-year-old Cox is to be sentenced to 50 calendar years in prison, which must be served day for day without any possibility of release for good behavior. If Cox is still alive when the prison sentence is completed, he will be required to register as a sex offender and be placed on lifetime sex offender probation.

According to the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office, the investigation began in June of 2026, when a parent called the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) to report that a family friend, Chester Cox, had molested her child numerous times between the years of 2017 and 2020. Although Cox was a teacher at a local elementary school in Cottonwood, the child was not one of his students. During the investigation, evidence corroborating the molestation claims was obtained, and YCSO also received a tip from a former student that Cox may have used a hidden camera at the school to record students while they changed clothes for athletic events. YCSO quickly discovered multiple images and videos on Cox’s cell phone of students getting dressed and undressed, as well as using the restroom. Several recording devices, including a digital camera with tape and an antenna, were located during a search of Cox’s car.

Yavapai County Attorney Dennis McGrane commended the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office for an excellent investigation and stated, “Mr. Cox’s crimes are shocking and despicable. All too frequently, we hear about teachers and other trusted members of society harming children for their selfish sexual desires. Arizona law does not currently allow for the death penalty in such cases, and it is time for that to change. That change will only happen if my fellow Arizonans call and write their legislators to ask that they change Arizona’s law to allow for the death penalty for child molesters and others who sexually harm children. Until that happens, I want to be clear that anyone who sexually harms a child in Yavapai County will receive a lengthy prison sentence.”