A man has admitted to trying to fake his own death as part of an effort to dodge charges in connection with sexually assaulting a teen girl.
Per a report from CBS News, Jacob Blair Scott—a military veteran—pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday to charges including sending a false distress call and giving false information. Additionally, Scott pleaded guilty to having illegally shipped weapons. Federal sentencing for Scott, who earlier this year received an 85-year sentence after his conviction on charges including sexual battery and chid exploitation, is slated to take place this November.
Adding more context here is a report from regional Alabama outlet WALA-TV, which noted in its report on Monday that authorities in Orange Beach found a boat with a pistol and suicide note attached in July 2018. A subsequent Coast Guard search is estimated to have cost more than $17,000. At the time, per the outlet, Scott was slated to appear in court in Mississippi in connection with the aforementioned charges in connection with having raped and impregnated a 14-year-old girl.
Convicted charges in that case ultimately included multiple counts of sexual battery and touching a child for lustful purposes, as well as a single count of child exploitation, per AP.
Scott, who had taken to using a fake name, was ultimately found in Oklahoma. Just before being located and arrested, he had been added to the U.S. Marshals’ most-wanted fugitives list. At the time, a Marshals rep said they had received a tip from someone who said a person “fitting the description” was living at a mobile home park in the Antlers area. The Marshals touted Scott’s capture as the “fastest apprehension of a fugitive” in the history of its most-wanted program.
The sentence set for this November is expected to follow sentencing guidelines and will run concurrent with the sentence he received in June in connection with the aforementioned case.
