WAILUKU -- A former Iao Intermediate School substitute and band teacher was sentenced Friday to a 20-year prison term for sexually assaulting a former student over a three-year period.
"I'm so remorseful and so saddened by the fact that a person I cared for was hurt by me," Jim Balicanta said in court.
Balicanta, 40, had pleaded no contest eight counts each of first- and third-degree sexual assault of the girl, who was in the 8th grade when the sexual assaults started.
First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rivera said the girl continues to suffer psychologically and physically.
Second Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo followed a plea agreement in sentencing Balicanta, who has been held at the Maui Community Correctional Center since his arrest in April.
Thirty-six other counts of sexual assault against Balicanta were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
