A former high school basketball coach who was once named Mr. Basketball of Arkansas and was arrested in 2018 on a child porn charge will spend five years in prison, court records show.
Circuit Judge Tom Cooper issued the sentence Monday against Brandon Ballard, who was a teacher and coach at Buffalo Island Central High School in Monette until he was arrested in 2018. Ballard entered a negotiated guilty plea Oct. 19 to computer child pornography, according to court documents.
On Dec. 6, 2018, Kirby High School Principal Jason Burns and head basketball coach Marty Smith contacted the school's resource officer, Chance Reid, telling him that a 15-year-old boy received inappropriate messages from Ballard on Snapchat, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The teen said he and Ballard had sent messages back and forth since July of that year, but that around the end of October the man sent him a lewd picture and asked him to send one back, the affidavit states.
Authorities said Ballard reportedly told the teen he would give him $1,000 and a new pair of basketball shoes, and that he had asked the 15-year-old to come and stay with him.
Jana Bradford, the prosecuting attorney in the case, said Ballard was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with seven suspended.
Ballard was named Mr. Basketball, an honor given to the state's best high school basketball player, as a senior at Buffalo Island Central High School in 2005. He played one season at Arkansas State University.