A Maryland man accused of trying to kill a woman by holding her underwater and shoving her out a second-story hotel window in Laramie, Wyoming, faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Joseph Paul Jackson, who is 54 this year, is set to give his plea Sept. 25 in the Albany County District Court.
Jackson and a woman with whom he traveled from Maryland arrived about July 10 at the Americinn hotel in Laramie, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case by Laramie Police Department Detective Cheryl Kondratieff.
Kondratieff met with the woman July 24. She had recently left an out-of-state hospital and was in a back brace during the interview, says the affidavit.
Drinking And Throwing Eggs
The events giving rise to Jackson’s case started about 8 a.m. on July 10, soon after the pair arrived in the hotel.
They both started drinking alcohol in the hotel room that morning. She drank beer while Jackson shot vodka, says the document.
Jackson went to the liquor store, then to grab some eggs from the hotel’s continental breakfast.
At around 11:30 a.m., the woman was in bed when Jackson grabbed eggs from a plate and threw them at her, then rubbed them on her face, her ears and her hair, says the affidavit.
Then he allegedly poured beer on her head. They argued and she tried to calm him down.
Jackson went to smoke a cigarette near the window while the woman went to the bathtub to wash the eggs and beer off.
She was on her back washing her hair when Jackson came in and shoved her down in the tub, submerging her head, the affidavit alleges. She remembered kicking and fighting.
He let her resurface, called her a “bitch,” told her she compromised everything, then held her under the water again, says the document.
She believed she’d never resurface, the woman later told Kondratieff.
Jackson kept telling her she wouldn’t make it out of there.
Eventually he did let her stand up and leave the bathroom, the affidavit says.
She got a towel and started to get dressed. The affidavit says he pushed her so that she fell onto the floor, repeatedly, then he’d command her to get up, and she would.
He then yelled at her, kicked her and hit her, then held her onto the floor with his body weight before kicking and punching her more, says the affidavit.
The document continues, accusing Jackson of holding the woman against the wall and squeezing both of his hands around her throat until she couldn’t breathe and her face throbbed with the pressure.
“You are not going to make it out of here,” he said, the affidavit alleges. “You are going to respect me, you are going to submit to me.”
The woman said she was stuck in the corner of that room for hours.
Out The Window
At some point, she looked at the window.
“Oh, you are going to jump, perfect,” Jackson said, the affidavit claims. “You either jump or I am going to throw you.”
She looked out the window and down, seeing rocks on the ground. She straddled the windowsill and cried, unsure what to do, says the affidavit.
She decided to climb back into the room, but just then Jackson shoved her out the window with both hands, the document claims.
She tried to shove off the wall to get more momentum so she wouldn’t land on the rocks.
“You are so stupid,” Jackson allegedly called out to her as she lay on the ground.
Your Back Is Broken Now
She crawled around on the ground but couldn’t stand up while he came outside and found her.
She saw a passerby walking a dog, but couldn’t call out because of the pain: she could only groan, says the affidavit.
Jackson hoisted her onto his shoulder and took her back to the room, where he yelled at her and hit her more, the document alleges.
The affidavit says he used all his weight to jump onto her back with both feet three times as she lay on the floor.
“Bitch, if your back was not broken then, it is now,” he said, the affidavit claims.
She tried to crawl under the bed away from his wrath, but could only use her arms. She couldn’t use her legs, the woman later told the detective.
Drowning In beer
Jackson put a towel on her face and poured beer on the towel until she couldn’t breathe and held her down onto the floor, the affidavit says. Then he picked her up and put her on the bed.
She said she was badly hurt and needed help.
“If I were you, I would not be concerned about you,” Jackson is alleged to have said. “I would be concerned about your kids.”
Knowing that Jackson knows where her kids live, the woman was terrified, she told the detective.
He got into bed with her and fell asleep. She laid there for hours, unable to move her body, the document says.
A Bargain
The affidavit says that eventually Jackson and the woman made a bargain: if she would tell ambulance personnel that she was so clumsy and had a hiking accident, he’d call an ambulance.
Jackson called the ambulance and cleaned up the room.
The ambulance took her to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, and Jackson followed her there reporting she’d been in a hiking accident.
The hotel manager later recalled this claim as well, telling Kondratieff that Jackson came to the lobby at some point. He seemed panicked, smelled of beer and said that the woman had been in a hiking accident, the manager remembered.
Ivinson personnel transferred the woman to a hospital in Loveland, Colorado, because she needed surgery and her back was broken.
The Laramie hospital was able to treat Jackson for a broken finger that the woman later told police was caused when he hit her, or when he hit the wall.
Get Him Out Of Here
While the woman lay waiting for surgery in the next hospital, Jackson stayed in her room, lying on the couch.
At some point he left the room and the woman was able to tell a nurse that she was in trouble.
A security guard escorted Jackson out of the hospital.
The woman had a shattered vertebra and needed bone graphing and fusion of multiple vertebrae in her back. Her left leg was weak, her knee was injured and she required another hospital transfer for spine surgery, says the affidavit.
Right On Camera
Kondratieff reviewed the hotel’s surveillance from the time of the incident.
In footage from July 10 at 1:36 p.m., the detective could see Jackson walking in the parking lot – and the woman crawling into camera view from the back side of the building.
Jackson grabbed the top of the woman’s head and held her hair in his left hand, then her head went toward the ground, Kondratieff related from the footage in her affidavit.
The woman crawled toward an outdoor table.
Jackson walked around the table, bent over her and said something to her. The woman used the table to stand up and she leaned against it on her belly, says the affidavit.
Then Jackson grabbed her right leg, hoisted her over his right shoulder and walked back toward the front of the building, the document claims.
Could Be A Long Haul
Jackson’s case ascended Sept. 6 to the felony-level Albany County District Court, from the Laramie Circuit Court in which the Albany County Attorney’s Office charged him.
He faces 11 charges.
- Second-degree attempted murder, punishable by between 20 years and life in prison
- Kidnapping to inflict bodily injury, which generally carries up to 20 years in prison
- Aggravated assault (up to 10 years and $10,000 in fines)
- Two counts of strangulation of a household member (up to 10 years and $10,00 in fines each)
- Felonious restraint (up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines)
- Two counts of unlawful contact (up to six months in jail and $750 in fines each)
- Three counts of domestic battery (up to six months in jail and $750 in fines each)
Jackson’s case is ongoing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
