Calif. golf coach gets 27 years for abuse, plot to kill boys

HAYWARD, Calif. - A popular northern California golf teacher convicted of molesting his students and plotting to kill them from jail was sentenced Thursday to 27 years in state prison.

Andrew Nisbet, 32, of Livermore, pleaded guilty to seven felonies including murder solicitation, possessing child pornography and lewd and lascivious acts on a minor.

The once popular coach was sentenced by an Alameda County Superior Court judge, said Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney.

Under a plea deal, prosecutors dismissed nearly 80 felony charges that could have meant a life sentence.

Nisbet was convicted of sexually assaulting three boys between the ages of 12 and 17 from 2009 to 2012. He was arrested in December a day before he was to receive the Northern California PGA's 2013 Junior Golf Leader Award for his work with young golfers.

Nisbet tried to hire a hit man to kill the victims weeks after his arrest. The plan fell through when an informant gave Nisbet's letters to a sheriff's deputy in late February, authorities said.