Appeals court upholds sentence of former Duluth middle-school teacher for having sex with teen boy

The state Court of Appeals has turned down the request of a former Duluth middle-school teacher, who will have to face her full 12-year prison sentence for having sex with a teenage boy. 35-year-old Karla Winterfeld pleaded guilty in October 2018 to first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The appeals panel in upholding Winterfeld’s sentence quoted the district judge’s statement during sentencing that “this case probably has weighed on my mind more than any other case I have ever had.” The judge told Winterfeld the victim “didn’t have much going for him” and coming into her home gave him “hope for a better future. And then you, by your actions, destroyed that. And you destroyed that young man….”