Self said Brazelle will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Oct. 7, after a presentencing report has been completed. He faces 1-10 years in prison.

Lauderdale County Chief Assistant District Attorney Will Powell said the victim’s family was kept informed throughout the plea process and was in agreement with Tuesday’s guilty plea of child molestation.

Brazelle, the former music and youth minister of First United Methodist Church of Sheffield, was indicted in August 2014 on sodomy and sexual abuse charges involving a teenage boy.

Authorities said Brazelle, 81, 311 Meadow Hill Road, Sheffield, is accused of sexually abusing the teenager, who was a member of his youth group at the church.

Brazelle was indicted on second-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse. Child molestation is a lesser included offense of second-degree sodomy.

Court officials said as a part of the plea agreement, the second-degree sodomy charge was dismissed.

Reports indicate the abuse occurred in the mid-1990s at Brazelle’s Shoals Creek residence on Lauderdale 322 near the Happy Hollow community.

Authorities said the victim was younger than 16 when the abuse began.

Powell said the incidents occurred multiple times between 1995-98.

As a part of the plea agreement, Brazelle will have to register as a sex offender.

“This offense makes him a registered sex offender, and when he finishes his sentence, he must register as a sex offender,” Powell said.

Brazelle was arrested Jan. 6, after an investigation by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation.

Powell said the case against Brazelle was scheduled to be tried next week during the August circuit court session.

“We wanted a felony and him to register as sex offender,” Powell said. “We got that, and he will spend some time in jail. The family was pleased with the agreement.”

In 2012, Sheffield police launched an investigation into allegations of child abuse by Brazelle after church members contacted police. Department officials said the investigation was put on hold a month later because reported victims were unwilling to come forward.

Authorities said SBI agents began an investigation in early December 2013 after the agency was contacted by a reported victim who now is an adult.

Brazelle was terminated as music minister at the church on July 27, 2012. Police said Brazelle had not held youth minister duties at the church for about 10 years before his arrest.

According to an August 2012 letter to members of the church explaining Brazelle’s termination, the former youth director and music minister admitted to church officials he had an inappropriate relationship with a younger church member.

Another letter released by church officials during the initial probe, stated in 2003 the United Methodist Church’s bishop restricted Brazelle from choir directorship with young people after he was accused of inappropriate sexual contact in the 1970s.

Brazelle has been out of jail on bail of $45,000.

Before dismissing Tuesday’s hearing, Self told Brazelle to have his affairs in order when he came back for the October sentencing.