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A military veteran accused of staging his suicide to avoid criminal charges for raping his 14-year-old stepdaughter, who later became pregnant, has been sentenced to 85 years in prison.
Jacob Blair Scott, 45, was found guilty on nine counts of sexual battery, four counts of touching a child for lustful purposes and one count of child exploitation on Thursday.
Scott showed little emotion when the verdict was read in the Jackson County Circuit Court located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, for the heinous crime, The Sun Herald reported.
The convicted-rapist was supposed to turn himself in to face charges of assaulting the teen, but faked his death in July 2018.
Investigators found Scott’s small boat off the coast of Orange Beach, Alabama, They also found a gun and a suicide note but little forensic evidence confirming that a suicide occurred.
For more than a week, the authorities searched for a body in the Gulf of Mexico, but nothing surfaced, US Marshal’s said.
Jacob Blair Scott, 45, is led into the courtroom for his sentencing hearing following a trial in which the jury gave its verdict that Scott was guilty on all charges in Jackson County Circuit Court in Pascagoula, Miss., on Thursday, June 2, 2022. Scott, convicted of sexually assaulting a girl and impregnating her when he was 40 and she was 14, was sentenced him to 85 years in prison
Scott cried on the stand as he spoke about his personal demons. District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath and Assistant District Attorney Justin Lovorn excoriated Scott for trying to blame his mental state, a failing relationship and even the victim for the sexual assaults
Scott, who was living under a pseudonym, was captured in early 2020 at an RV park in Oklahoma where he had been living.
On Thursday, Jackson County Circuit Judge Kathy King Jackson described the evidence in the case as ‘overwhelming,’ and sentenced the military veteran to 85 years in prison. She also ordered him to pay $10,000 in fine.
‘It’s more evidence than I’ve probably ever seen,’ Jackson said, in part.
At the trial, the victim wept as she detailed the terror she encountered daily at the hands of her stepfather during her testimony.
She told the courtroom the disturbing details of how Scott sexually assaulted her at least 30 times that started in early 2016 and ended in 2017.
The abuse ended after she learned that she was pregnant.
The young victim told the judge and the jury that she gave birth to the baby.
Investigators found Scott’s small boat off the coast of Orange Beach, Alabama, They also found a gun and a suicide note but little forensic evidence confirming that a suicide occurred
The gun that the authorities found on a small boat located off the coast of Alabama. The authorities conducted a search in the Gulf of Mexico in search of a body that was never there.
District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath expressed disgust towards Scott, and compassion for the young victim.
McIlrath and the Assistant DA Justin Lovorn reprimanded Scott for trying to put the blame on a host of issues from his mental state, post-traumatic stress, failing relationship and even the girl for the sexual assaults, when he committed the crime.
Before the sentencing he pleaded with the judge to review his medical records that indicated that he was heavily medicated, which impaired his judgement.
‘I was a good man,’ Scott said ‘This ain´t who I am.’
McIlrath said she did not believe Scott and called his defense a ‘hail Mary’ tactic to try to get leniency, before handing down the sentence.
The handwritten note he left on his boat when he tried to trick the authorities into thinking he killed himself to avoid facing the heinous crime
‘This is the first time in my 18 years I have ever seen anything so brazen and so vile,’ the judge said. ‘This is about blaming the 14-year-old. This whole trial was about humiliating the 14-year-old who had no choice.’
Authorities said Scott had assaulted his stepdaughter while his wife and teenage daughter slept in their Mississippi home
The victim’s mother only found out about the sick abuse that her daughter had to endure at the hands of her rapist husband when the victim’s older sister took her to a hospital.
It was at the hospital when she learned that she was 10 weeks pregnant. A DNA test later confirmed it was her stepfather’s baby, The Daily News reported.
Scott of Moss Point, Mississippi, was awarded a Purple Heart in 2011 for injuries he received while deployed in Iraq, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
They also which listed him as one of its 15 most wanted fugitives, Associated Press reported.
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