Man Sentenced for Faking Death to Avoid Sex Charges

Jacob Blair Scott is already serving an 85-year sentence for abusing 14-year-old
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 22, 2022 6:32 PM CDT
Updated Nov 29, 2022 1:58 PM CST
Man Admits Faking Suicide to Avoid Sex Abuse Charges
Jacob Blair Scott cries out while being cross-examined by Assistant District Attorney Justin Lovorn, during his trial in Jackson County Circuit Court in Pascagoula, Miss., on Wednesday, June 1, 2022.   (Hannah Ruhoff/The Sun Herald via AP, File)
UPDATE Nov 29, 2022 1:58 PM CST

A man has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for faking his own death in Alabama to avoid criminal charges of impregnating a teenage girl in his home state of Mississippi. Jacob Blair Scott was sentenced Monday in Alabama, the AP reports. US District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock set the federal sentence to run at the same time as Scott’s 85-year prison sentence for his conviction in Mississippi on sexual battery charges, court records show. Scott was facing charges in Mississippi in July 2018 when he rowed a boat into the Gulf of Mexico. Investigators said he left a gun and a suicide note. The Coast Guard searched for a body for more than a week. Beaverstock ordered Scott, who was captured in early 2020 at an RV park in Oklahoma, to pay $17,165 to compensate the Coast Guard for the search.

Aug 22, 2022 6:32 PM CDT

A military veteran pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to faking his own death off the Alabama coast to try to avoid sexual abuse charges in Mississippi. Jacob Blair Scott pleaded guilty to charges of sending a false distress call that led to a Coast Guard search, illegally shipping weapons across state lines, and giving false information, according to court records. A federal judge will sentence Scott in November. He was already sentenced to serve 85 years in prison in Mississippi after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl and impregnating her when he was 40 and she was 14, the AP reports.

Scott was facing charges of assaulting the girl when he faked his death in July 2018. The Orange Beach Police Department responded to a call for assistance and found a small boat in the Gulf of Mexico, about a mile away from shore, with a gun tied to it. The dinghy was empty except for a suicide note. Authorities searched for a body for more than a week in the Gulf of Mexico. Scott was captured in early 2020 at an RV park in Oklahoma, where he was living under another name. A Mississippi jury in June convicted him of multiple sexual battery and child abuse charges.

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According to the Sun-Herald, the victim tearfully testified at the trial about how Scott had sexually assaulted her at least 30 times over several months beginning in 2016 and ending in 2017 when she learned she was pregnant. She said Scott threatened to harm her family members if she told anybody about the abuse. Scott is a military veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart in 2011 for injuries he received while deployed in Iraq, according to the US Marshals Service, which had once listed him as one of its 15 most-wanted fugitives.

(More Mississippi stories.)

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