PASCAGOULA, Miss. – A veteran who once faked his own death in an attempt to avoid criminal prosecution has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a girl and getting her pregnant when he was 40 and she was 14 .

A jury convicted Jacob Blair Scott of Moss Point, Mississippi, Thursday. Jackson County Circuit Judge Kathy King Jackson sentenced him to 85 years in prison, saying it was essentially a life sentence. She also ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.

“The evidence is overwhelming,” Jackson said. “That’s more evidence than I’ve probably ever seen.”

The herald of the sun reported that Scott was unmoved when a jury found him guilty of nine counts of sexual assault, four counts of touching a child for lewd purposes and one count of child exploitation .

Scott, 45, is a military veteran who received a Purple Heart in 2011 for injuries he suffered while deployed to Iraq, according to the US Marshals Service, which once listed him as one of its 15 most wanted fugitives.

Scott was supposed to turn himself in to face assault charges against the girl, but he faked his death in July 2018 by leaving a small boat with a gun and a suicide note in Orange Beach, Alabama, WLOX-TV reported.

Authorities found little evidence of a suicide but searched for a body for more than a week in the Gulf of Mexico. Scott was captured in early 2020 at an RV park in Oklahomawhere he lived under another person’s name.

During the trial, the victim wept as she testified that Scott sexually assaulted her at least 30 times beginning in 2016 and ending in 2017 when she learned she was pregnant. She said she gave birth to the baby.

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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 of the sexual assaults.

“It’s the first time in 18 years that I’ve seen something so brazen and vile,” McIlrath said. “It’s about blaming the 14-year-old. This whole trial was about humiliating the 14-year-old who had no choice.”

Before sentencing, Scott blamed his mental problems, post-traumatic stress and other disorders for affecting his mental state when he committed the crimes. He begged the judge to look at his medical records and how he was heavily medicated and suffered from depression and relationship issues which he said clouded his judgement.

“I was a good man,” Scott said. “That’s not who I am.”

McIrath called Scott’s defense a “Hail Mary” tactic in an attempt to win clemency. Before passing sentence, the judge said she did not believe Scott.