A military veteran who was charged with sexual abuse in Mississippi admitted in federal court on Monday that he faked his own death off the coast of Alabama to try and get out of the charges.
Jacob Blair Scott pleaded guilty to sending a false distress call that led to a coast guard search, giving false information, and illegally moving weapons across state lines, court records say, CBS News reported.
The 40-year-old veteran, who was awarded a Purple Heart in 2011 for injuries he sustained during his service in Iraq, was already sentenced to 85 years in prison in Mississippi after he was convicted of sexually assaulting and impregnating a 14-year-old girl.
He is now set to be sentenced again by a federal judge in November after faking his death in July 2018 before he was found guilty of the sexual assault charges.
In 2018 Scott was going to accept a plea deal in Mississippi, but before his court hearing, he fled the state and set up his drowning hoax, WLOX reported.
On the day of the hoax, Scott called for assistance, and the Orange Beach Police Department responded to the call about a mile away from shore. When they arrived, they found a small empty boat with a gun tied to it and a suicide note inside.
The Gulf of Mexico was searched for more than a week as authorities attempted to find a body, but their searches came up empty.
Two years later, Scott was captured in 2020 at an RV park in Oklahoma. According to reports, he lived in the park under a different name. The U.S. Marshals Service had previously listed Scott as one of the agency’s 15 most-wanted fugitives.
In June of this year, he finally went to court for the abuse. During the trial, the victim tearfully testified about how she was abused by Scott at least 30 times over several months from 2016 to 2017. He was found guilty of multiple sexual battery and child abuse charges by the Mississippi jury.
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