Burnet man who lied about church gunmen finishes two-month sentence
Jacob Wayne Tarver, 46, of Burnet recently pleaded guilty to deadly conduct for firing a gun three times during a fabricated incident in which he claimed to have driven away gunmen from a church in 2024. The incident turned out to be a hoax. Burnet County Jail photo
The Burnet man at the center of a 2024 church threat hoax was recently released from jail after serving 60 days following his guilty plea to a felony deadly conduct charge this summer.
Jacob Wayne Tarver, 46, also must serve eight years of probation and pay $50,000 in restitution to Burnet County for expenses accrued during an investigation of the incident.
Judge J. Allan Garrett of the 33rd District Court passed down the sentence in August.
On Oct. 6, 2024, Burnet County law enforcement and several state and federal agencies responded to a report of two gunmen attempting to assault the congregation of Church at the Epicenter in Burnet. Tarver, who was an armed volunteer security team member for the church, told investigating officers he fired his weapon three times to drive away the “gunmen.” A massive manhunt began immediately but was called off the next day when investigators determined Tarver had made up the entire scenario.
“(Tarver’s story) led to a lot of fear and confusion and a lot of man hours for a hoax,” 33rd/424th District Attorney Perry Thomas told DailyTrib.com on Oct. 27, two days after Tarver was released from the Burnet County Jail after serving his 60-day sentence.
Tarver pleaded guilty to the felony deadly conduct charge on Aug. 27. If he violates the terms of his eight-year probationary sentence, he faces four years in prison. He also has eight years to pay back the $50,000 in restitution to the county.
At the time of his 2024 arrest, Tarver was also charged with making a false report that induced an emergency response and tampering with evidence with intent to impair an investigation, but these were not part of his final conviction.
BACKGROUND
A quote from a media release issued by the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office following the October 2024 event reads:
“In the course of this investigation, the safety team member who fired the shots admitted that he had fabricated significant details of this incident and had lied to law enforcement and others about this incident.”
“There were no hostile actions taken or directed at the church by any persons, and no weapons brandished toward the church or the safety team member. At no time was the safety of the congregation in jeopardy.”
Rumors swirled during the initial chaos of the incident, including that the alleged gunmen were cartel members wielding AK-47s or men in “headwraps” and “headdresses” speeding away from the scene in a white van.
Church at the Epicenter founder Kyle Byrd made a statement on Facebook following the incident:
“It is with confused and broken hearts that we report (news of Tarver’s fabrication of events),” reads the October 2024 post. “We now turn our hearts towards trying to understand what might have led our head of security to fabricate such a serious story. While we know that these types of threats are real around our state & nation, we have absolutely no idea why this happened.”
Byrd shut down his church, which had been open for 20 years at 2401 U.S. 281, on Oct. 28, 2024, three weeks after the hoax. The pastor attributed the closure to “the response that we got from the community.”
“It was a really shocking event that devastated us,” he told DailyTrib.com in October 2024. “We weren’t prepared for the response that we got from the community, both at large and among the spiritual community … . It was discouraging, and it just kind of helped us understand that it was time to make a change.”