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U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer threatened to have mouthy convicted murderer Jeffrey Lee Stock gagged Wednesday afternoon before he ensured Stock will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Stock, 42, won’t have to comply with the registration requirements for 14 years. That’s how much time he has remaining on an 18-year state prison term for the 2009 second-degree murder of Megan Maxwell, a 19-year-old Cocke County woman.
A predictably impudent Stock repeatedly interrupted Greer before the federal judge sentenced him to 46 months for failing to register in Tennessee as a sex offender.
“Mr. Stock you are out of order and the marshals will gag you if you do not keep quiet,” Greer loudly admonished the killer.
The federal prison term Greer imposed was inconsequential. The plea agreement he reached with state prosecutors in the Maxwell murder case provided the time he got for not registering as a sex offender would be served concurrently with the 18-year prison term.
The plea agreement, however, contained no provision that Stock be required to register as a sex offender.
Before Stock was charged with Maxwell’s killing, Greer sentenced him to six years in prison, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit concluded the sentence was excessive.
The federal judge opined nothing in Stock’s past suggests spending 14 years in prison will modify Stock’s behavior.
“(Crime) has been his avocation during his entire adult life. And the record suggests within hours or days of your being released, you will re-offend.”
The judge also said Stock refuses to take full responsibility for his criminal behavior, including Maxwell’s murder, saying he wasn’t guilty but just entered a guilty plea because he believed he would be convicted.
“And he shows a lack of remorse,” Greer added.
Stock has convictions that include sexual assault, sexual battery, arson, possession of marijuana, hashish and cocaine, assault, theft, invasion of privacy, driving while impaired, reckless driving, felony non-support of his children, criminal impersonation, burglary, receiving stolen property, obstruction of justice and other charges.
“Mr. Stock probably has the worst criminal history I’ve ever seen, with a violent history,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen C.T. Smith told Greer Tuesday afternoon.
Smith said that sentencing Stock to fewer than 10 years “would send the wrong message to the people of Newport, Tennessee.”
By the federal prosecutor’s reckoning, Stock has accumulated an average of 2.57 convictions per year for the past 20 years, “posing a threat to everyone he meets.”
“Jeff Stock has devoted a lifetime terrorizing his family and his communities without any real punishment or consequences for his behavior,” the prosecution sentencing memorandum states.
“In every instance, Stock blamed others: his family, his criminal accomplices, his victims and law enforcement officers,” the document further states. “His behavior worsened with each conviction, emboldening him to commit more serious crimes on increasingly vulnerable victims.”
Smith cited Stock’s behavior at his change-of-plea hearing as an example of his contempt for the law. Stock feigned a hearing loss – and despite virtually constant contact with the criminal-justice system – a lack of understanding of the process.
“I don’t understand the federal part of it,” Stock said
Federal prosecutors initially reported Stock was convicted of rape in Indiana, his home state.
His attorney, Clifton Corker, represented the rape charge was downgraded to sexual assault and maintains much of his client’s criminal history is a result of his addiction to crack cocaine.
Stock is suing Cocke County Sheriff Armondo Fontes in U.S. District Court in Greeneville for allegedly besmirching his reputation by falsely representing Stock as a convicted rapist.
-From Staff Reports
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