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Mississippi convicted rapist Jacob Blair Scott: "Hail Maria" tactic
Photo: Hannah Ruhoff/AP
A military veteran who once faked his own death to avoid indictment has been convicted of raping and getting a girl pregnant when he was 40 and she was 14.
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Jackson County District Judge Kathy King Jackson
Photo: Hannah Ruhoff/AP
A jury found Jacob Blair Scott of Moss Point, Mississippi guilty.
The Jackson County District Judge sentenced him to 85 years in prison, saying it was essentially a life sentence.
She also fined him $10,000.
"The evidence is overwhelming," the judge said.
"It's more evidence than I've likely ever seen." The Sun Herald reported that Scott received the shorn man's verdict without emotion when she found him guilty of multiple sex offenses and child exploitation.
Scott, 45, is a veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart in 2011 for injuries sustained while serving in Iraq.
This is reported by the US Marshals Service, which once listed Scott as one of the fifteen most wanted suspects.
He was supposed to turn himself in for the girl's crime, but he faked his death in 2018 by leaving a small boat with a gun and a suicide note in Orange Beach, Alabama, according to a TV report.
The perpetrator lived under a false identity in a trailer park in Oklahoma
Authorities found little evidence of suicide but searched for a body in the Gulf of Mexico for more than a week.
Scott was arrested in early 2020 at a trailer park in Oklahoma where he was living under an assumed name.
During the trial, the victim tearfully testified that Scott molested her at least 30 times in 2016-2017, when she found out she was pregnant.
She said she carried the baby.
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The two district attorneys in Jacob Blair Scott's rape trial
Photo: Hannah Ruhoff/AP
The district attorney's office slammed Scott for attempting to blame his mental health, a failed relationship, and even the victim herself for the sex offenses.
"This is the first time in my 18 years that I have ever witnessed something so outrageous and so despicable," said a prosecutor.
“This is about blaming a 14-year-old.
This whole process was about humiliating a 14-year-old who had no choice.”
Before sentencing, Scott blamed his mental health issues, post-traumatic stress and other disorders that affected his mental state when he committed the crimes.
He asked the judge to look at his medical records, saying he had been on heavy medication, suffered from depression and relationship problems that clouded his judgement.
"I was a good man," said Scott, "I'm not."
The prosecutor called Scott's defense an "Hail Maria" tactic to try to obtain extenuating circumstances.
Before delivering the verdict, the judge said she didn't believe Scott.
jso/AP