Alleged Teacher-Student Affair Leads to Murder
Eric McLean is facing second-degree murder charges for killing his wife's lover.
Sept. 12, 2007 — -- A trial date has been set in Knoxville, Tenn., for a salacious murder case involving an alleged love triangle with a teacher, her husband and a student.
Eric McLean, who filed for divorce from his wife, Erin McLean, last week, faces second-degree murder charges in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Sean Powell.
The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 14.
The drama began when suburban mom and student teacher Erin McLean was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Powell. McLean worked as a counselor at Powell's high school.
The night of Powell's shooting, the McLeans argued about Erin McLean's alleged relationship with a teenage student.
Things came to a stunning conclusion when Eric McLean discovered Powell at the couple's home March 10 and shot him.
Soon, Erin McLean placed a frantic phone call to 911.
"He shot him with a shotgun. Please come. Hurry, hurry," Erin McLean told the operator. "My husband just killed someone! Oh my God, oh my God."
After the teen's death, Powell's family members stumbled upon text messages he and Erin McLean had exchanged.
Since Powell's death, Eric McLean has expressed remorse over the shooting.
"I'm just really sorry about all of this. I never wanted this to happen," he said. An emotional Eric McLean said in an NBC News interview he accidentally pulled the trigger.
"I felt like my entire world was falling apart, my family is falling apart," he said.
But, the tragic tale doesn't end merely with Eric McLean's trial, according to officials.
Now, five months after the shooting, they believe Erin McLean again is engaged in a student-teacher relationship.
Erin McLean got another teaching job, this time at a Nashville private school, after the shooting. She was fired after a concerned parent came forward with the new allegations.
"There was a lot of phone calls going to a particular student," said Pioneer Christian Academy headmaster Jeff Darnell.
While the school wouldn't comment on its hiring practices, it said Erin McLean was not upfront and had used her maiden name, Meyers.
"She wasn't forthcoming in her answers and what was on her resume," Darnell said.
Eric McLean's attorney said he plans to use the new information to help his client.
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