ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A Whittier, N.C. man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a brazen attempted kidnapping on the Blue Ridge Parkway, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Evan William Blankenship, 23, was sentenced to 120 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to possession and discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Blankenship’s crime took place on September 28, 2023, when he drove his vehicle to a parking area at Water Rock Knob Overlook off the Blue Ridge Parkway, where he pointed a semi-automatic pistol at two victims, L.P. and L.M., who were sitting in a parked vehicle.
According to court documents and court proceedings, Blankenship tried to pull L.P. out of the vehicle by the hair and arm, threatened to harm both victims, and struck L.P. in the face, causing temporary hearing loss. He also fired his firearm into the air before pointing it again at the victims.
L.M. eventually convinced Blankenship to let them go, and the victims reported the incident to law enforcement. Shortly thereafter, L.P. informed investigators that she knew Blankenship through Snapchat and believed he had used Snapchat’s location-sharing feature to find her on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Blankenship was arrested on October 11, 2023, and has remained in federal custody since. He will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.
U.S. Attorney King thanked the National Park Service for their thorough investigation and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance with the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex M. Scott, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville, prosecuted the case.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney King said, ‘We are committed to keeping our communities safe from violent crime. We appreciate the hard work of our law enforcement partners in bringing this defendant to justice.’
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Key Facts
- State: North Carolina
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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