GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A Tennessee man who fled military service and lived under a stolen identity for more than 30 years was sentenced to prison on Monday.
Jerry Leon Blankenship, 65, of Newport, had been dishonest about his name with almost everyone, including his girlfriend of 30 years who is the mother of his three children, according to court records.
Blankenship enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1976. After basic training, he deserted to avoid future military service, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Blankenship assumed someone else’s identity and established a new life in Newport under the stolen name.
A sentencing memo in Blankenship’s case, authored by his defense attorney, claims Blankenship stole this identity at the suggestion of his wife, who was in a child custody battle with another man at the time. The identity Blankenship assumed was the father of his wife’s child and is noted as “R.C.” or “Randy Clark” in court documents.
“When [redacted] discovered that Jerry was AWOL from the Navy, she suggested to Jerry that she knew enough of R.C.’s details that Jerry might easily lie and pass for R.C. in order to avoid further trouble with the Navy,” the sentencing memo states. “Jerry considered [redacted] offer, and accepted. Not long after, however, [redacted] too, left… Jerry’s choice to accept [redacted] offer profoundly altered the course of the rest of his life.”
Since 2005, authorities said, Blankenship obtained three fraudulent driver’s licenses in the victim’s name. He also used the victim’s name in a business that he and his girlfriend ran in Newport, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Blankenship did not divorce his wife before becoming involved in a 30-year relationship with her grown daughter and operating the business with the stolen identity, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Blankenship’s deception was uncovered when he obtained a COVID-19 vaccination at a Newport pharmacy.
“The real victim was notified of the vaccination that the real victim had not received,” a press release states. “Store surveillance video showed Blankenship was the person who had obtained the vaccination under the victim’s name.”
On Monday, Judge Ronnie Greer sentenced Blankenship to 25 months in prison after Blankenship agreed to plead guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of fraud involving a social security number and one count of aggravated identity theft.
The sentencing memo notes that the U.S. Navy is planning to extradite him for prosecution.
Dozens of letters from Blankenship’s supporters are included in the federal case file, including from a retired colonel, his friends in Cocke County and family members.
“Daddy has always been an incredible, faithful, caring, and honest man (minus the name). He is an outstanding citizen. If ANYONE needed anything, he would be the first there to help. Daddy is well aware of the wrong he has done. This issue started when he was still a kid so to speak. Everyone has done something in their life that they are not proud of. It took him a while to realize his, but at that point he was afraid it was too late to correct it,” said Blankenship’s daughter in a character letter to the court.
“I fully understand that Randy made some very unwise choices,” wrote retired U.S. Army Colonel James L. Holloway Jr. “Some of those choices were made forty years ago and can be attributed to immaturity. Nonetheless, Randy has demonstrated that he has been completely honest and professional in all his dealings with my wife and me.”
Blankenship is expected to face a military tribunal for his desertion.
