A former Woodland High School English teacher arrested earlier this year for having a sexual relationship with an underage student while employed in Monterey County received a combination of jail time and probation at her sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Mika Marie Yoneda, 26, pleaded no contest in August to five felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under age 16, according to Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Lana Nassoura.
Although Yoneda faced up to eight years in state prison, Monterey Superior Court Judge Mark Hood sentenced her to a year in county jail and two years of felony probation, Nassoura said. Hood also imposed a 10-year criminal protective order for the victim and ordered Yoneda to register as a sex offender for the next 10 years.
"Since the crimes she committed are not violent strikes, she is eligible for 50-percent credits on her jail sentence, meaning she will serve around half of her 365-day jail sentence," Nassoura told The Davis Enterprise via email.
Additional charges in the case, including sodomy and oral copulation with a minor, as well as meeting a minor for lewd purposes, were dismissed in exchange for the plea, court records show.
As previously reported, Monterey County sheriff's detectives arrested Yoneda on Jan. 6 at the Woodland High School campus on North West Street, sheriff's spokesman Commander Andres Rosas said in a news release at the time.
Rosas said the alleged relationship with the male student occurred during Yoneda's employment at North Monterey High School during the 2022-23 school year. Yoneda also worked as a private tutor at the time.
Woodland Joint Unified School District officials, which removed Yoneda from her teaching position, said they were not aware of any similar conduct involving local students.
