Military veteran admits to faking death to avoid sex abuse charges involving 14-year-old stepdaughter

A military veteran and Purple Heart recipient has pleaded guilty to faking his own death in a bid to dodge criminal charges for raping and impregnating his 14-year-old stepdaughter.

Jacob Blair Scott pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court to counts of illegally shipping weapons across state lines, providing false information and sending a false distress call that triggered a Coast Guard search. The charges stem from his efforts to escape punishment for assaulting his wife’s teen daughter while the woman slept in their Mississippi home. Her mother only learned of the ongoing abuse when the teen’s older sister took her to a hospital and learned the victim was 10 weeks pregnant, police said.

A DNA test later confirmed Scott was the father, triggering the 43-year-old Mississippi man’s arrest. He posted bond in July 2018 and then later failed to appear for a court hearing. Instead, he attempted to fake his own death by abandoning a small boat in Orange Beach, Ala. before sending out a distress call and fleeing, according to federal court documents.

Jacob Blair Scott, who is accused of sexually assaulting a minor, cries out while being cross-examined by Assistant District Attorney Justin Lovorn, during his trial in Jackson County Circuit Court in Pascagoula, Miss., on June 1, 2022 (Hannah Ruhoff/)

When authorities recovered the boat, it was empty aside from a semiautomatic pistol and a suicide note. Crews searched the Gulf of Mexico for nearly a week before calling off the efforts, which cost the U.S. Coast Guard a whopping $17,165.11.

Scott was finally captured in early 2020 at an RV park in Oklahoma, where he was living under another name.

In June, a jury voted to convict Scott of nine counts of sexual battery, four counts of touching a child for lustful purposes and one count of child exploitation. He was sentenced to 85 years in prison.

During the trial, his stepdaughter was overcome with emotion as she testified about the abuse she faced. She said Scott sexually assaulted her at least 30 times over the course of several months starting in 2016 and ending in 2017 when she found out she was pregnant, according to the Sun Herald.

Scott, who was awarded a Purple Heart in 2011 for injuries he received while deployed in Iraq, is slated to be sentenced in November on the most recent round of charges.

With News Wire Services