Boater who jumped into NC lake to flee police sentenced in drugs and guns case
A boater who jumped into a North Carolina lake during a police pursuit was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison Tuesday on drug and gun charges, federal prosecutors said.
Jason Travis Shook, a 42-year-old Conover resident, pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of a firearm by a felon, according to documents in U.S. District Court in Charlotte.
In August 2022, Catawba County sheriff’s officers watched Shook’s home after learning he “was distributing large amounts of methamphetamine in the area,” according to a news release Tuesday by U.S. Attorney Dena King’s office.
On Aug. 25, 2022, deputies saw Shook put a backpack onto the rear seat of his SUV and drive away with a white boat attached, prosecutors said. Officers tried several times to stop Shook before he crashed into woods at the end of a road in Hickory and jumped into Lake Hickory, court records show. Officers soon detained him.
The backpack had 369 grams of pure meth in a clear plastic bag, digital scales and other drug paraphernalia, $24,707 in cash and two unspent 12-gauge shot gun shells, according to court documents.
Deputies found a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol that Shook tossed from the SUV during the pursuit, court records show. The gun had a round of ammunition in the chamber and a round in the magazine.
Shook was previously convicted of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious Injury and second-degree kidnapping, both felonies, and was barred from having guns and ammo, King’s office said.
The charges stemmed from a 2018 assault on his then-girlfriend, whom he punched, held captive for three days and hit with a baseball bat, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
Shook will remain in federal custody until he’s taken to a prison.