A St. Stephens, Wyoming, man accused of trying to kidnap a teenage girl from outside a movie theater two years ago has agreed to plead guilty.
The girl, who would have been about 15 or 16 on May 28, 2022, fought her attacker off that night. Then, covered in blood, she called her aunt from the Gem movie theater in Riverton to say that her attacker had stolen her car, according to a social media post the girl’s aunt made at the time.
The family later found the car singed, as if someone had tried to burn it, court documents say.
Terrence Paul Jenkins, 40, plans to plead guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery, one of attempted kidnapping, third-degree arson and aggravated assault, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday in Fremont County District Court.
The prosecutor, Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun, has agreed to argue for no more than 40 years in prison, while Jenkins can argue for any sentence he deems appropriate.
Jenkins also will give a confession to each charge in court and admit to being a habitual criminal, the agreement says.
If the judge accepts the plea agreement, the prosecutor will drop a sixth charge, of attempted rape.
But Jenkins still would have to pay restitution on the dropped charge, and all the other charges.
The Insanity Plea
Jenkins pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness on May 22, 2024.
Two separate evaluations followed to see if Jenkins was too mentally ill or incompetent at the time of the alleged crime to rationalize his conduct or conform it to the law. His most recent and final evaluation report was filed with the court Nov. 22.
The contents of that report are not public. But four days after it was filed, Jenkins signed the plea agreement, promising to switch his plea to guilty.
‘I’m On My Way Home, Auntie’
The night of May 28, 2022, the girl got out of the theater and texted her guardian to say she was leaving, writing, “I’m on my way home auntie.”
“Drive safe babe,” the aunt texted back, according to the aunt’s social media post from that week.
The aunt watched the girl’s Life360 tracking app on her phone, and the girl didn’t appear to be moving. Then the girl’s car sped off in the wrong direction, the post says.
“We knew something was wrong,” the aunt wrote, adding that then a call came in from the movie theater. It was the girl, calling to say someone had robbed her.
Fought For Her Life
The girl’s guardians arrived to find her covered in blood from head to waist, says the post, adding that the girl had fought for her life.
An evidentiary affidavit filed in the case says the man had pressed a knife to the girl’s throat, punched her in the face, beat her, strangled her and pulled her hair. She escaped his grasp by slipping out from her jacket and shirt, says the document.
He tried to get her into the passenger seat, but she fought him. He then tried to stuff her into the back seat and tried to pull her pants down, but she kept fighting, the affidavit adds.
The attacker fled in the girl’s car and took her cellphone, she told police.
The girl’s family later found her car, singed as if someone had tried to light it on fire. But the guardians weren’t as concerned over the car — a replaceable object — as they were over the girl, the aunt wrote.
“I’m so proud of her and her strength,” says the aunt's post. “She didn’t let him win. She was smart and used what she had. I couldn’t be any prouder of her.”
The girl's aunt encouraged people to watch their daughters, to use the Life360 tracking application and to be aware of their surroundings.
The post also offered a description of the suspect.
But First, A Stabbing Report
The evening didn’t start with the kidnapping report; it started with a reported stabbing.
Riverton Police Department Officer Taggart Harmelink responded to a Riverton liquor store on Federal Boulevard at 9:37 p.m., May 28, 2022, for a call about a knifepoint robbery.
The alleged victim, who was about 53 at the time, had a laceration to her lower left abdomen, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
The woman said a Native American male had approached her driver’s side door and stabbed her.
A male bystander, who was about 16, yelled at the man to stop, the affidavit says.
The document says the stabber then grabbed some of the alcohol the woman had just bought and ran west away from the scene toward the heart of town.
RPD officers collected evidence, including cigarette butts discarded in front of the liquor store, and DNA swabs from the woman’s vehicle.
The affidavit says video surveillance at the shop showed the man, later identified as Jenkins, standing outside the store smoking cigarettes just before the incident. The woman left the store, and Jenkins followed her in a way “which appeared to be an attempt to close the distance,” the affidavit relates.
She reached her vehicle. The footage reportedly showed the teen confronting Jenkins, and Jenkins running off.
The document says the footage showed the woman running into the liquor store, pressing her belly with her left hand.
Ten days later, the woman identified Jenkins from a six-photo lineup, says the document.
Then-RPD Detective Billy Whiteplume called in a witness he’d spotted on the surveillance video to pick out the suspect from a photo lineup. The witness also identified Jenkins from a six-photo lineup, the affidavit alleges.
One Hour Later
One hour after the stabbing, RPD Officer Brandon Brookover went to the Gem Theater in Riverton for a report of a robbery and knife assault.
Brookover found a girl, age 15 or 16, “bloodied,” says the affidavit.
The girl said she did not know the man who attacked her.
Brookover noticed that the girl’s description of the male matched the earlier reported description of the suspected liquor-store stabber.
Tracking …
Law enforcement agents were able to track the fleeing car with the girl’s 360 tracking app, the affidavit says.
They found the car in the 400 block of Washington Avenue in Riverton. It was unoccupied, but a partially burned rag stuck out from the gas tank. The vehicle’s exterior had scorch marks, says the affidavit.
Her phone was reportedly found at a stairwell at the Rodeway Inn.
The document says that three days later, the girl picked Jenkins out from the lineup.
Whiteplume interviewed Jenkins on June 8, 2022. Jenkins reportedly confirmed he’d been staying at the Rodeway Inn.
Whiteplume also gathered a cheek swab from Jenkins and, pursuant to a warrant, sent the swab to the Wyoming Crime Lab.
Around Sept. 8, 2022, DNA match results started coming from the lab. Investigators rated Jenkins’ DNA “highly consistent” with the DNA from the cigarette butts collected around the liquor store, the DNA found on the girl’s cellphone and in the girl’s car.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
