A new document released Monday has put renewed attention on Brittany Zamora, a former Goodyear teacher who is in prison for sexually abusing a student.
Once a star teacher, 27-year-old Zamora taught at a primary school and was caught sending illicit messages to a 13-year-old male student over Instagram and other messaging platforms, months after the “relationship” began in 2018.
He later pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor, attempted molestation and public indecency, according to court records. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 20, the lowest sentence for these crimes.
The new document shows body camera footage from the days leading up to his arrest, detailing interviews from parents, witnesses, school officials and Zamora himself.
Here are answers to frequently asked questions about Zamora.
What is Brittany Zamora like?
Zamora was arrested in March 2018 on charges of having sex with his sixth grade student at Las Brisas Academy.
Police reports described how he, then 27, slept with his student several times in his classroom and in the car, sometimes with an 11-year-old boy acting as a “guard” in the classroom. The pair even had sex when his sixth-grade class saw the inappropriate video, according to police reports.
In June 2019, Zamora pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a minor, attempted molestation of a minor and public indecency as part of a plea deal. He has been charged with 15 crimes, including eight counts of lewdness with a minor and many other crimes.
Zamora’s relationship with the 13-year-old boy began when he told his sixth-graders to send him messages on an educational app called Classcraft because he was bored one day.
Text messages between Zamora and the 13-year-old boy then turned romantic and turned sexual, according to police. This relationship continued for about three months before a monitoring app on the student’s phone alerted his parents about the illegal documents between the two.
The app – Sentry Parental Control – warned the mother that the word “baby” kept coming up in a direct message conversation on Instagram. He quickly realized that the Instagram account belonged to Zamora.
Zamora was arrested in March 2018 after his parents found the messages.
Where did Brittany Zamora train?
Zamora graduated from Arizona State University and took a teaching job at Littleton Elementary School in Avondale. He was awarded the Teacher of the Year award in 2016.
He was then hired to teach at Las Brisas Academy, where the misconduct occurred.
What sentence did Brittany Zamora give?
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2019. 20 years is the minimum sentence allowed for his crime.
What did Brittany Zamora’s husband have to do with this matter?
The boys’ parents sued Zamora in 2019, claiming that Zamora’s husband, Daniel, knew about his wife’s relationship with the boy.
The lawsuit also accused him of failing to notify authorities after learning of the ongoing abuse.
According to police reports, Daniel Zamora taught his wife when to call her parents, including the day he was arrested. He encouraged her to cry, apologize and do everything she could to make herself look helpless.
The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2019.
Is Brittany Zamora still married?
Zamora filed for divorce from her husband in 2020, writing that the relationship was “irretrievably broken” with “no hope of reconciliation.”
How old is Brittany Zamora?
Zamora was born in 1991. He is 33 years old.
When is Brittany Zamora released?
Zamora, who has more than six years in prison, was due to be released in 2038.
He will be on probation for the rest of his life and must register as a sex offender.
What do we know about what Brittany Zamora did?
Zamora’s victim was a 13-year-old male student. His identity has not been released in the media about the case.
Police interviews revealed that Zamora may have been tutoring another student.
The mother of the 13-year-old boy’s male friend told police that Zamora promised to send her son naked photos this summer. In class, Zamora asked his friend if he had been circumcised, the report said. She showed him pictures of male genitals on her phone when she said she didn’t understand the question.
This article originally appeared on the Arizona Republic: Who is Brittany Zamora? What to know about the ex-Arizona teacher