Police say the woman got away after her boyfriend fell asleep, prompting an investigation that led to his arrest days later.
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — A woman who told police she had been kept inside her parents’ home and assaulted for days escaped after waiting for her boyfriend to fall asleep, beginning an investigation that has placed a 24-year-old Rock Springs man in jail awaiting trial on kidnapping and other charges.
The escape is the turning point in the case against Jake Thomas Canestrini. Investigators say officers found the woman with numerous visible injuries after she got away and later obtained a search warrant for the house where she said the violence occurred. Police eventually arrested Canestrini on June 16. He has since pleaded not guilty in Sweetwater County District Court and remains a pretrial detainee. The current county jail roster lists kidnapping, three aggravated assault and battery counts, strangulation of a household member, interference with a peace officer, three domestic battery counts and cruelty to animals as pending. His bond is listed at $300,000 cash or surety.
What officers encountered after the woman escaped became an important part of the investigation. According to court records described by Cowboy State Daily, authorities documented bruises and other injuries on her face, arms, shoulders, legs and knees, along with additional wounds. Medical information cited in the police affidavit said a physician diagnosed her with a concussion. Investigators also photographed injuries they believed corresponded with her account of what had occurred inside the house. Those observations do not by themselves decide the criminal case, but they were among the circumstances police cited as they sought court authorization to search the residence and pursue charges.
Detectives who searched the home recovered a kitchen fork, a knife and items believed to contain blood evidence, according to the affidavit. Investigators also reported a strong odor of bleach in one bathroom. Public reports reviewed for this story do not disclose final forensic results from those items, so it is not clear what laboratory testing may ultimately be introduced at trial. The search was conducted after neighbors reportedly saw Canestrini leave the area on foot carrying a duffel bag. Police did not arrest him there. Instead, investigators continued looking for him while building the case from the woman’s statements, her documented injuries and evidence collected at the residence.
A detective later spotted Canestrini riding in a vehicle registered to his father, according to the affidavit. Officers conducted a traffic stop, Canestrini identified himself, and police took him into custody on June 16. Early booking information included felonious restraint among the accusations recorded when he entered the Sweetwater County Detention Center. The current jail roster, however, lists the district-court case as involving kidnapping and the other assault, strangulation, domestic battery, interference and animal-cruelty counts. That distinction reflects the procedural movement of the case after his arrest rather than a finding of guilt on any allegation.
The police investigation then worked backward through several days that the woman said began after her parents left town May 30. She and Canestrini had been dating for about three years and were living at her parents’ Rock Springs home, according to the probable cause affidavit. After her parents left, the woman told investigators, Canestrini repeatedly threw her to the floor and prevented her from leaving. Officer Tiffany Harris wrote that the woman described being held down for hours and struck in the head. When she tried to stand or run, the affidavit says, Canestrini allegedly pulled her by the hair to keep her from getting away.
The woman’s account also describes conduct that allegedly cut her off from ordinary activities outside the home. On June 2, investigators say, Canestrini called her employer and told the workplace that she would not be coming in. The woman said she continued trying to resist or leave but faced further violence. Police treated those allegations as part of a pattern of restraint rather than a series of unrelated arguments. The kidnapping charge now pending alleges unlawful confinement connected with bodily injury or terrorizing the victim. Whether the prosecution can prove that charge and the others will be decided through the court process, not by the allegations contained in the affidavit.
Investigators say the woman’s description of the violence included strangulation and attacks involving common household objects. She reported being cut with a razor blade and punctured with a kitchen fork. During another alleged assault, she said Canestrini put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Court records also describe threats against members of her family if she contacted police. The affidavit says he threatened her cat as well. Because the case remains pending, those statements are allegations attributed to the woman and investigators. Canestrini’s not guilty pleas place the burden on prosecutors to establish in court what happened and whether the conduct meets the elements of each criminal count.
The allegation involving the cat became a separate cruelty-to-animals charge. The woman told police that Canestrini squeezed the animal, grabbed it by the throat and slammed it to the floor as it cried. She said she asked him to stop but that he asserted he could treat the cat as he wanted. In the broader case, investigators describe the incident not only as alleged harm to an animal but also as part of the threatening environment the woman said she faced while trying to get away. Authorities have not publicly identified the woman in the reports reviewed for this article, and unnecessary details about her identity have been withheld.
After Canestrini’s arrest, the case moved through Sweetwater County Circuit Court and then to district court. A judge found sufficient evidence at a preliminary hearing for the prosecution to continue. Canestrini later entered not guilty pleas. His attorney, Joseph August Hampton, did not respond before publication to a Cowboy State Daily request seeking the basis of the defense and asking whether his client disputed the allegations in the charging documents. No later defense statement addressing the woman’s account was found in the sources reviewed. The absence of a public response does not alter the presumption of innocence or reduce the state’s burden of proof.
The charges expose Canestrini to substantial potential penalties if he is convicted. Cowboy State Daily reported that Wyoming’s kidnapping statute can carry a term of 20 years to life under circumstances applicable to the charge described in the case. The aggravated assault counts can carry additional prison exposure. Those are statutory possibilities rather than predictions about an eventual sentence. Before punishment becomes an issue, prosecutors would first have to prove the alleged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, and the defense can challenge the woman’s account, physical evidence, police investigation and legal sufficiency of the charges.
More than two months after the reported escape, Canestrini remains in the Sweetwater County Detention Center. The county’s current roster lists him as held pretrial on $300,000 cash-or-surety bond, with the district-court charges pending. The most recent court report reviewed for this story says a jury trial is scheduled for Nov. 2, barring a plea agreement, continuance or other resolution. The case therefore remains unresolved, with the account that began when the woman reached safety still to be tested in court.
Author note: Last updated August 26, 2026.