Accused of enlisting his mother to help kidnap his ex-girlfriend, a Kemmerer man pleaded “not guilty” this week to two felony kidnapping and restraining charges and one count of domestic battery, a misdemeanor.
Trayven Hays, 19, gave his plea Monday, his court file indicates.
The charges stem from April 17, when a Kemmerer woman was riding in a Ford F-150 truck at about 10:30 p.m. with a man named Timothy Peck.
Peck would later tell police that the woman had just broken up with her boyfriend, Hays, and needed a friend that evening. He bought them popcorn to share, he said.
As they drove through town, a dark-colored vehicle tailgated and flashed its lights at the pair. The vehicle then parked in front of Peck’s Ford, cutting him off, according to all accounts that Kemmerer Police Officer Ryan Popp related in the case affidavit.
From The Truck To The Jeep
That’s where the stories diverged.
Peck told police that Hays emerged from the passenger-side door of the dark-colored vehicle and banged on the Ford’s passenger window, where the young woman sat, until she unlocked her door.
Hays flung open the door, reached over the woman to unbuckle her seat belt and yanked her from the vehicle, Peck told police.
Peck did not identify the vehicle’s make for police, but they later discovered it was a Jeep.
Hays grabbed the woman by the back of the neck and she screamed out in pain, the affidavit alleges. He then opened the back passenger-side door of the vehicle and threw his ex-girlfriend into it, closing the door behind her.
Then Hays got into the front passenger seat and the driver of the Jeep — unknown to Peck at that time — drove away at a high speed, parking at a house, Hays’ home.
The woman’s phone was still in Peck’s truck, and it started to ring.
Peck answered the phone and spoke with the woman’s mother, and told her what had just happened, the affidavit says. The woman’s mother urged Peck to call police, so he did.
High School Parking Lot
Peck told dispatch what had just happened but as he did so, noticed the Jeep following him again. He drove into the high school parking lot, as did the Jeep.
At least one Kemmerer Police Department officer also arrived at the parking lot, as did the young woman’s mother.
Hays’ mother was standing in the lot pointing at Peck’s Ford when police arrived, the affidavit says. She told police that she only wanted the young woman’s cellphone out of Peck’s truck.
Peck told police what had just happened, and he handed over the phone. Police told Peck to go home while they finished their investigation.
Meanwhile, the young woman’s mom had gotten into Hays’ mom’s Jeep and there they sat, talking to one another until police separated them. Popp told the mother to go sit in her own vehicle.
Homeward
Popp then spoke with Hays’ mother. The mother said that both Hays and the young woman were at her house, and they were both fine.
Popp told Hays’ mother he was going to her house to speak with Hays and the young woman.
The mother said that was fine, but she wanted to go into the house first to put away her dogs, the affidavit says.
Once there, Hays’ mother “quickly” went into the house. Popp stayed close behind, following her in.
Popp found the young woman curled up in a ball in the fetal position on a couch, crying and shaking. She did not make eye contact but stared forward as if she were zoned out, the affidavit says.
“I was able to approach her and take her by the hand and (said) that I was going to remove her from the (house),” wrote Popp in the affidavit.
He walked her out of the house and to her mother’s vehicle, which was parked just down the street. During the walk the young woman complained of abdominal pain.
Tool Chest
Popp asked the young woman questions during their walk.
She said she and Peck were driving around, and she’d just broken up with Hays. They noticed they were being followed.
The woman was on the phone with her mother when Hays jumped out of the Jeep and started banging on the window, she said. He banged so hard, the young woman feared the glass would break, she told police in a follow-up interview.
She hung up on her mom.
Just as Peck had, the young woman told police that Hays unbuckled her, yanked her from the truck, squeezed her neck and threw her into the Jeep. Her belly slammed into a toolbox in the back seat, she told Popp, and she crawled toward the driver’s side of the Jeep to get away from Hays, who was entering the front passenger side.
As the trio traveled to the Hays’ home, Hays yelled and screamed at the young woman while his mother drove them to the Hays’ home, the affidavit alleges.
Popp asked the young woman what Hays had yelled, but she said she couldn’t remember. She said she cried and held her stomach.
Pop noted red marks on the woman’s stomach and called for medical personnel.
Not Yanked, But Guided
Popp went back into the Hays’ home to talk to Hays and his mother.
The officer took Hays outside, put him in his patrol vehicle and read him his Miranda rights, the affidavit says.
Hays said he acted out of concern. The young woman, whom he claimed was only a friend and not a girlfriend, had texted him saying she was out drinking with friends.
Hays woke his mother up and tracked the young woman using a GPS application they both had on their phones, he said. The affidavit later clarifies that the pair had been keeping their location-share feature open to one another’s phones.
Hays and his mother got into the Jeep, with the mother driving, and tracked the young woman until they honed in on the Ford truck, the affidavit says. They tried to get the driver’s attention by flashing their lights because, Hays said, he was nervous that whoever was driving may be intoxicated because of the woman’s texts about drinking.
Hays’ mother pulled up in front of the vehicle at an angle at a stop sign, Hays recalled, adding that he got out and removed the young woman from the vehicle.
Hays said he “guided” the young woman to the Jeep and put her in the back seat of his mother’s vehicle before they all drove away.
The young woman was upset and crying, Hays said, adding that he didn’t call police because he didn’t want to get anyone in trouble.
Next, Mom
Popp went to interview Hays’ mother next. He read her her Miranda rights as well, the affidavit says.
Contrary to what her son said, Hays’ mother told Popp that Hays and the young woman had been in a dating relationship. The mother said Hays woke her up after getting the woman’s text messages.
They tracked her cellphone using the shared location data, pulled up in front of the Ford truck, and her son put the woman in the back of the Jeep, Hays’ mother said, according to the affidavit.
Hays’ mother drove home and they wall went into the house. She asked the young woman where her phone was.
The young woman said it was still in Peck’s vehicle, the affidavit relates.
So Hays’ mother went out to track down the Ford again to get the phone.
That was when everyone converged on the high school parking lot.
Why Not Police?
Popp asked Hays’ mother why she didn’t call police.
She said she tried to call the young woman’s mom, but couldn’t get ahold of her.
Popp asked to see the attempted call on Hays’ mother’s phone.
Hays’ mother said her phone was dead, the affidavit says.
Police asked her to charge her phone.
Hays’ mother walked over to her phone, says the affidavit, and said that the call must not have gone through after all.
“At this time, I noticed a large black military-style knife in a black sleeve sitting on the kitchen table,” wrote Popp in the affidavit.
Pleading The Fifth
Police went back outside to talk to Hays again.
They asked if he was dating the young woman.
Hays invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions about the case, says the affidavit. He then said he was having a panic attack, so police called for an ambulance.
Medical personnel took both Hays and the young woman to the hospital.
‘Get In The House’
The young woman relaxed and talked more at the hospital once she was near her mother, the affidavit says.
She told police that Hays’ mother told her to go into the house once they got there after the Jeep ride. When she remained curled up and crying, Hays grabbed her under her arm, took her out of the Jeep and into the house, the affidavit says.
“Get in the house now,” Hays allegedly said.
Once inside the house, Hays told the young woman to sit on the couch, while his mother went out to get the woman’s cellphone.
Hays kept yelling at her, asking why she was out with Peck and not with a female friend, the affidavit says.
She curled up on the couch.
Later she stood up and headed for the front door, but Hays ran at her “aggressively” and told her to sit back down, the affidavit says. So, she sat back down.
He yelled at her again and jabbed his finger in her face, scratching her right eye, says the affidavit, making it painful to open.
The woman also said Hays brandished a large military knife, then put it on the ottoman in front of her and asked, "this is what you want? Huh? If you want to go so badly then do it."
She explained that she's had suicidal thoughts in the past and has been mentally evaluated because of them. She said it seemed Hays wanted her dead, the affidavit says.
When officers arrived on scene, the woman said, Hays put the knife back in its sleeve.
Next, Jail
Hospital personnel found scratch marks on the woman’s neck and possible abdominal muscle bruising, but her internal organs weren’t injured and she was soon discharged from the hospital.
Hays also was discharged, then taken to the Lincoln County Detention Center.
Prosecutors charged him on April 17 and the case was transferred from Kemmerer Circuit Court to the felony-level Lincoln County District Court 10 days later.
Hays’ trial is set for Aug. 21.
Clair McFarland can be reached at: Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com
