JUSTICE FOR MEGAN MAXWELL: Stock arraigned in U.S. District Court

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Stock arraigned in U.S. District Court

Published: 10:44 AM, 06/18/2009

GREENEVILLE-Jeffrey Lee Stock, 41, of Newport, was scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court today on charges of traveling in interstate commerce and failing to register as a sex offender.

Stock, who was indicted earlier this month by a federal grand jury, is presently detained in the Grainger County Jail on charges placed by the Cocke County Sheriff's Office according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office.

U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick said Stock violated the federal "Adam Walsh Act" by being a convicted sex offender who traveled from Florida to Tennessee and failed to register with authorities here.

Stock, he said, has also been identified by Cocke County authorities as "a person of interest" in the disappearance of Newport teenager Megan Maxwell.

If convicted of the federal charges, Stock faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years; a maximum term of supervised release of up to life; a maximum fine of $250,000, and a $100 special assessment.

The indictment of Stock is the result of an investigation by the United States Marshal's Service, the Cocke County Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney General for the Fourth Judicial District, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and the Knox County Sheriff's Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Smith will represent the United States.

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MEGAN MAXWELL CASE TIMELINE:

April 26th, 2009 - Sometime After 12:00 a.m. – Maxwell receives a call to go check on her father because he has been “in a situation.”

- 4:00 a.m. – Police reportedly respond to Maxwell’s father’s home on Mineral Street in Newport. Family members say Megan, her father and Jeffrey Lee Stock, 41 were there. Stock was allegedly drunk and belligerent, but not arrest was made.

- 4:27 a.m. – Megan calls her best friend to tell her she is finishing a cigarette and driving back to her grandmother’s home in Newport.

- Between 4:30 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. – Witnesses see Stock driving Maxwell’s 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse. One told investigators that stock stopped to ask for a lighter, and kept “fiddling around” with something in the trunk.

- 6:15 a.m. – An off-duty Newport Police Officer spots Megan’s car on fire along East Highway 25/70 near the French Broad River. Evidence found in the car leads investigators to believe she may have ended up in the river.

April 27th, 2009 - Authorities begin searching up and down the French Broad River for Megan’s body. The search goes on for weeks.

April 30th, 2009 - Governor Phil Bredesen authorizes a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person responsible for the disappearance or death of Megan Maxwell.

May 9th, 2009 - Jeffrey Lee Stock is taken into custody for violating the newly enacted “Adam Walsh Act.” He was indicted by a federal grand jury for being a convicted sex offender who traveled to the state of Indiana without registering. Stock was added to the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry after being convicted of sexual battery in 1997.

June 2nd, 2009 - The Cocke County Sheriff’s Office confirms Jeffrey Lee Stock is considered a person of interest in the Maxwell disappearance. Police say evidence put Stock at Megan’s father’s home the night she disappeared and Mr. Maxwell had Stock’s car towed from his home sometime after Megan’s car had been discovered burning.

- Lisa Maxwell, Megan’s mother tells Volunteer TV News that her daughter knew Stock as an acquaintance of her father and that, “She didn't like him and I know that she had run him off from up there before."

June 6th, 2009 - Megan Maxwell's story is featured on America's Most Wanted.

September, 21st, 2009 - Jeffrey Lee Stock enters a guilty plea in federal court to violating the Adam Wash Act. He still refuses to cooperate with the investigation into Maxwell’s death.

March 11th, 2010 - Stock is sentenced to six years in a federal prison for violating the Adam Walsh Act. He is transported to Arizona to serve his term at the United States Penitentiary-Tucson. He'll remain there until 2014 and spend the rest of his life on federal supervised release.

November 4th, 2010 - A man walking his dog along Ponderosa Road near Parrottsville spots what appears to be a human skull and some bones. Cocke County deputies, Newport Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation close access to the scene and begin searching the wooded area for more remains. They reportedly discover clothing on the scene as well. - The remains are taken to the University of Tennessee Regional Forensic Center in Knoxville.

November 5th, 2010 - Cocke County Sheriff Armondo Fontes calls a news conference to announce confirmation that the remains are those of Megan Maxwell.