Military veteran sentenced for faking his death to avoid sex crimes charges in Mississippi
Military veteran and convicted sex offender Jacob Blair Scott was sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal prison on three federal charges related to him faking his own death off the Alabama coast to try to avoid prosecution on state sex crimes charges in Mississippi.
Scott is already serving an 85-year sentence for sexually assaulting and impregnating a girl in Jackson County when he was 40, and she was 14. A Jackson County jury convicted him of the state charges in June.
In the federal case, Scott pleaded guilty in August to charges of sending a false distress call, illegally shipping a weapon across state lines and giving false information, according to court records.
Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock sentenced Scott on Monday to 21 months on each count, with each of the sentences to run concurrently to the 85-year state sentence he is serving following his convictions for sex crimes in Mississippi.
In addition, the judge ordered him to pay $17,165 in restitution to the Coast Guard to cover the costs of them using various resources, such as 45-patrol boat dispatched from Pensacola, Florida, to search the Gulf waters off the Orange, Beach, Alabama, coast, for Scott after he faked his death.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Anderson in Mobile prosecuted the federal case.
Scott withdrew $45,000 from his bank account in Mississippi before he faked his death off the Alabama coast on July 30, 2018.
The Orange Beach Police Department responded to a call for assistance after Scott’s small dingy boat was found in the Gulf waters, about a mile away from shore, with a .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol tied to it. The dinghy was empty except for a suicide note.
Scott had also left suicide notes to relatives instructing them to keep the same phone numbers for a year after his disappearance.
After a week of searching, authorities later determined Scott had faked his death to avoid prosecution in Mississippi.
Authorities captured Scott in early 2020 at an RV park in Oklahoma, where he was living under the name of a former co-worker at Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery. The former co-worker whose identity Scott had stolen told the Sun Herald early-on he had no idea Scott had used his identity.
During his trial for sex crime charges in Mississippi, the victim repeatedly wept as she told jurors Scott had sexually assaulted her at least 30 times over several months beginning in 2016 and ending in 2017 when she became pregnant.
Scott is a military veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart in 2011 for injuries he suffered during his deployment in Iraq. After his disappearance, Scott was named one of the 15 most-wanted fugitives by the U.S. Marshals Service.
During his trial, Scott admitted to having sex with the minor girl, but tried to blame her and other things for the sex crimes he committed against the minor.
This story was originally published November 28, 2022 at 3:57 PM.
