'Armed And Dangerous' Lakes Region Felon Now Behind Bars: Follow-Up

CONCORD, NH — An “armed and dangerous” fugitive from December 2022 turned himself into sheriffs and is serving his sentence on criminal threatening, reckless conduct, and felon in possession of a dangerous weapon charges after an incident in Barnstead from 2016.

Paul Elijah Tasker Jr., 46, was featured in December 2022, with an armed and dangerous warning, due to prior criminal incidents. But after what Andrew Grillo, a deputy marshal, called “an extensive media campaign inspired intense public pressure,” he turned himself into the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department.

Tasker failed to appear at his sentencing in 2016 after threatening a mother and her three children by chambering a rifle and firing it in their direction.

“A convicted felon for a similar charge,” he said, “Tasker was prohibited from possessing firearms in the first place.”

Tasker was also featured nationally on the program, On Patrol: Live.

Ultimately, Grill said, Tasker surrendered and informed Belknap sheriff’s deputies he didn’t want to “die in a shootout with the marshals.”

Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Katherine Burns said the department deeply cared about the safety and wellbeing of the people in the communities it serves — “and this sentiment extends to the fugitives we are tasked with bringing to justice.” She added the Tasker case “should be noted for the compelling force of a concerned public rather than the threat of deadly violence — and we are pleased with the safe resolution of this case.”

According to superior court records, Tasker’s sentence was amended on Feb. 3, based on the original conviction, to 12 months in the Belknap County Jail and was to have no contact with the victims. He also will receive 119 days of credit for time served. Tasker’s original sentences were three seven years maximum, two and a half to three and a half year minimums, none suspended, with 64 days time served, in the New Hampshire State Prison for Men.

Tasker, records stated, is a felon due to drug possession convictions out of Barnstead from June 2002. A carrying weapon without a license charge was nolle prossed in March 2003. Tasker was accused of probation violation in January 2008.

In July 2009, Tasker was charged with criminal threatening and witness tampering after an incident in Barnstead. He pleaded guilty to the threat charge in January 2010. A probation violation charge followed in November 2010. Six years later, he was found guilty of a probation violation.

In July 2016, he was charged with felony reckless conduct-deadly weapon, criminal threatening, and felon in possession of a dangerous weapon in Barnstead. He pleaded guilty to all three charges in September 2016. Tasker was accused of violating probation in October 2020, but that was dropped later. He failed to appear at a motion to impose sentence hearing in Belknap County Superior Court on Nov. 15, and the warrant was issued the next day.

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