A former Soldotna middle school custodian has been sentenced to serve 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a student.
Prosecutors say the abuse occurred over multiple years, starting in 2013 when the student was 14 years old.
A Kenai judge sentenced 54-year-old Alexander Coxwell last month to 25 years in prison with 10 suspended and credit for time served. When released, Coxwell will be required to register as a sex offender and will be on probation for 20 years.
KDLL does not identify victims of sexual abuse.
Coxwell faced three charges of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, an unclassified felony, and three charges of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, a class B felony. He also faced one charge of unlawful exploitation of a minor, a class A felony.
As part of a plea deal, Coxwell pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, and prosecutors dismissed the other six charges.
Coxwell was represented by Kenai Public Defender Joy Hobart, who did not respond to a request for comment by air time.
Charging documents say Coxwell was arrested in 2024 after Alaska State Troopers investigated him for misconduct involving minors. The initial report prompted an investigation, but did not lead to charges, charging documents say. After that report, the responding trooper investigator wrote in an affidavit he revisited earlier investigations by law enforcement into Coxwell’s behavior with students while he was a Soldotna middle school custodian.
In his affidavit, the investigator says he interviewed a former Soldotna middle school student, now an adult, who said she’d had a sexual relationship with Coxwell when she was between the ages of 13 and 16. State troopers had first investigated the former student’s relationship with Coxwell more than a decade ago, but dropped the case after she was admitted to a residential treatment facility.
Last year, the investigator monitored electronic messages between the former student and Coxwell. In those messages, the investigator says Coxwell discussed a sexual relationship starting when the student was 14, sexual videos he’d made with the student and supplying the student with marijuana and alcohol. The investigator created a ruse to trick Coxwell into thinking the former student would meet him at Kenai Municipal Airport.
The investigator placed Coxwell under arrest at the airport, where they say he was holding a bouquet of flowers and said he was waiting for the former student.
At Coxwell’s sentencing hearing, Deputy District Attorney Julie Matucheski said the case represents delayed justice for a victim of systemic failures. She read a statement on behalf of the victim in the case.
“If I see a green Subaru Legacy wagon, I get nervous that you just may be in it even when I was out of state,” Matucheski read. “My husband bought a red one and I made him sell it because I would cry every time I sat in it. Now that I'm older, looking back at all that happened, I realize when I have kids of my own, I will know what to look for and how to keep them safe, for I have seen what's behind the eyes of a predator.”
Coxwell also spoke at the hearing.
“I'd like to say that this crime happened 13 years ago, and I like to state the fact that people can change,” he said. “I have changed. I ask for mercy for my children.”
According to previous reporting by The Peninsula Clarion, Coxwell’s guilty plea makes him the fifth former Kenai Peninsula Borough School District employee to be convicted of sexual misconduct involving a minor since 2000. That doesn’t include a former Kenai Peninsula Borough employee who pleaded guilty last year to attempted indecent viewing of minors at school district facilities. And it doesn’t include a former Soldotna High School teacher facing charges for an alleged sexual relationship with a student while she was a minor.
