Prosecutors say Jack Waldrop III threatened to kill a 63-year-old woman during a 2022 attack that left her with broken ribs and a fractured sternum.
KENNEWICK, Wash. — A Washington man accused of kidnapping and severely beating his former girlfriend during a 2022 drive from the Tri-Cities toward Ellensburg is expected to change his plea this week in Benton County, after prosecutors said the woman escaped at a gas station and got help.
Jack Waldrop III, 57, had pleaded not guilty to first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault and violating a court order after the March 11, 2022, attack. Court officials have said he is scheduled to appear for a plea change, with the assault count expected to be dismissed under the proposed agreement. The case has drawn added attention because Waldrop previously served about two decades in prison in Oregon in the death of another former girlfriend, leaving this prosecution centered not only on the violence alleged in Kennewick and Ellensburg, but also on how a long-running domestic violence case is now nearing resolution.
According to prosecutors and police, the case began when Waldrop offered the woman, then 63, a ride to run an errand in March 2022. The two were traveling in his Ford F-150 when an argument broke out after she overheard a phone conversation that upset her, court records said. She got out of the truck and started walking toward a bus stop, but Waldrop soon pulled up again and offered to take her home. After she got back inside, police said, he drove her out of the Tri-Cities against her will. During the trip, prosecutors say, he told her she was “going to die today.” The woman later told investigators that the violence inside the pickup escalated as they traveled west, and that she was beaten while trapped in the vehicle with him. Police said the route eventually took them from Kennewick to Ellensburg.
Investigators say the attack turned especially violent during the drive. Court documents described Waldrop as stomping the woman, yanking her by the hair and punching her in the back. At one point, prosecutors said, she fell out of the truck during the struggle. They also allege that Waldrop repeatedly backhanded her while driving and threatened to kill himself. The woman later was found to have two broken ribs and a fractured sternum, injuries that sent her to a hospital for treatment. Police said the assault happened despite a protection order that required Waldrop to stay away from her. That court order became a separate criminal count in the case. What remains unclear from the public record is exactly how long the drive lasted, what prompted the alleged threats to intensify, and whether any other witnesses saw part of the assault before the woman reached safety in Ellensburg.
The break in the case came at a gas station in Ellensburg, where authorities said Waldrop told the woman to go inside and clean herself up. Instead, she hid in a bathroom and sought help from another person at the station. Police said patrons told Waldrop to stay away from her, and officers were notified as the woman received immediate medical attention. Kennewick detectives then responded to Ellensburg and developed probable cause to seek charges of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault in a domestic violence case and felony violation of a court order. A Kennewick police media release identified the suspect as “Jack Woldrop,” but the charging coverage and court reporting identify him as Jack Waldrop III. The release said law enforcement agencies began searching for him after he left the scene in a white 2014 Ford F-150 and that he had ties to Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California.
Authorities said Waldrop was not arrested at the gas station. Instead, he fled, setting off a search that stretched beyond Washington. Kennewick police said local and federal law enforcement were looking for him in the days after the attack and identified places in eastern Washington where he had reportedly been seen. He was eventually taken into custody in California several weeks later. That arrest moved the case from an active search into a formal prosecution in Benton County Superior Court. In May 2022, Waldrop entered not guilty pleas to the charges. A trial date was later set for June 13, but the case shifted again when court officials said he was expected to return to court for a plea change. Under the deal described in local reporting, Waldrop would change his pleas on the kidnapping and court-order counts, while the assault charge would be dropped. He would face up to eight years in prison under that agreement.
The case also carries weight because of Waldrop’s earlier criminal history in Oregon. Reporting on the current prosecution says he spent about 20 years in prison after the 1998 killing of Angela Walker, another former girlfriend, in Salem. He was later released in 2018. That history is not the basis for the new charges, but it has become part of the public discussion around the plea because prosecutors now are pursuing another domestic violence case involving a former partner, serious injuries and alleged death threats. Public records available so far do not show whether the woman in the Washington case knew about that earlier conviction before the 2022 attack. They also do not answer several other questions that often matter in domestic violence prosecutions, including how often the pair had been in contact before the March 2022 encounter, how long the protection order had been in place, and whether prosecutors considered additional counts before settling on the current charging structure.
For investigators, the strongest parts of the case appear to be the woman’s account, her injuries, the protection order and the sequence that ended with her escape in a public place. Police said she was able to get away only after reaching Ellensburg and finding help inside the gas station bathroom. The public record does not include a full transcript of her statements, but prosecutors have laid out a consistent account that the assault began after an argument, continued after she briefly got out of the truck and worsened once Waldrop drove her away from the Tri-Cities. The pending plea change suggests both sides may be moving to avoid a trial that would require the woman to testify in detail about the attack. Even so, the court still must decide whether to accept the plea, impose sentence and set any final conditions tied to the resolution of the case. Until that happens, the criminal file remains active.
The case now stands at a key turning point, with Waldrop expected in court for a plea change that could resolve the prosecution without a June trial. If the agreement goes forward, the immediate next milestone will be the hearing itself and then sentencing under the negotiated terms.