Accused of fatally attacking his wife during a drunken argument last November, a Lincoln County man could face up to 20 years in prison on a manslaughter charge.
Court documents allege that Jared Erickson, 52, drank and fought with his wife, 46-year-old Tennille Erickson, on Nov. 16, then found her dead in her bedroom amid blood and vomit the next evening.
She’d remained in the room alone all day. Jared told investigators he had checked on her multiple times.
Jared Erickson was arrested Tuesday and was freed after posting bond Wednesday.
Special prosecutor Dan Itzen, Natrona County District Attorney, filed the manslaughter charge in Lincoln County on May 22.
Allred called for the special prosecutor because his former work partner, John Bowers, is defending Jared Erickson, and because Allred knows both families involved in the case, he told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview.
“I wanted to be fair to all the parties involved, and I felt it was best to ask Natrona County to take a look at that case and prosecute it for my office,” said Allred. “Just out of fairness to all parties involved.”
Bowers did not respond to a Friday email request for comment on his client’s behalf.
The 911 Call
Jared placed a 911 call to the Lincoln County dispatch from his home at Star Valley Ranch at 6:37 p.m. Nov. 17, says an 18-page evidentiary affidavit by Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detective Jody Gardner.
Jared told the 911 operator he’d found his wife Tennille nonresponsive in their bedroom, with blood and vomit on the bed. She didn’t have a pulse but was breathing, he said.
The 911 operator guided Jared in moving his wife from the bed to the floor for CPR. He explained they’d been in separate rooms for hours. She drank alcohol regularly and took medications for anxiety and depression, he told the operator, according to the affidavit.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Seth Lewis responded to the home along with Star Valley emergency medical services, and the deputy helped first responders with lifesaving efforts.
Jared was also in the room, says the document.
A pillow lay on the bed, covered in what Jared thought was blood and vomit.
Lewis asked about Tennille’s prescriptions, and the husband showed those to the deputy, in the master bedroom. Lewis also asked about over-the-counter medications Tennille may have taken, and Jared Erickson said those were in the kitchen and she probably hadn’t accessed them because she’d stayed in her room all day, the document says.
Lewis used a bag to give Tennille Erickson rescue breaths. He noticed bruises on her forehead, and that she had a swollen eye. He also noticed a bruise on her torso, but he wasn’t sure if that was from the CPR efforts, Gardner wrote in the affidavit.
Jared Erickson told Lewis they’d argued the prior night, Nov. 16, and that Tennille had remained in her room throughout the day of Nov. 17. She was snoring when he checked on her at about 4 p.m., said Jared, but he discovered the blood and vomit a couple hours later, Jared told the deputy, reportedly.
Lewis asked why Jared had told the 911 operator Tennille was still breathing after 6 p.m.
Because he noticed a bubble in her nose when he moved her off the bed at the operator’s direction, Jared answered, according to the affidavit.
At some point before 7:32 p.m., the affidavit indicates, emergency medical responders informed Jared and his 18-year-old son that Tennille was dead.
Lewis called Gardner to report what he’d experienced in the home — and the bruises he’d noticed.
Detective Arrives
Gardner responded to the home at 8:12 p.m. that evening, along with Lincoln County Coroner Dain Schwab.
In the master bedroom, Gardner found the woman lying on the east side of the bed, a white sheet draped over her body. He pulled the sheet down and found her forehead bruised, her eyes swollen – and a “distinct bruise under her right breast,” the detective recalled in the affidavit. He also noticed the dirtied pillow, and several bottles of medication in the bathroom, to include medications for anxiety, depression, digestive issues, and restless leg syndrome, he wrote.
Gardner invited Jared Erickson to sit with him in his unmarked county vehicle, and Jared agreed to talk, says the document.
Jared described his wife as an alcoholic who drank about a fifth bottle of vodka each day and had done so for years. He discussed her depression, anxiety and restless leg syndrome.
They’d spent Nov. 15 in Laramie watching Jared’s son playing in the high school state football championship game – and they came home Nov. 16, the affidavit relates from that talk.
At about 5 p.m. Nov. 16, said Jared, his dad called him and “for some reason” that angered Tennille. They’d both been drinking. An argument followed, he reportedly said.
She confined herself to their room and he went to bed on the couch, the man added.
Should I?
“Jared Erickson told me that he was going to be honest with me,” reflected Gardner, “and that he was going to show me a text message.”
Tennille had sent her husband a selfie featuring her bruised forehead and swollen eye, and a text message asking if she should send those photos out to everyone. An investigation of her phone confirmed she sent the photo at 7:20 p.m. Nov. 16, and the text message 15 minutes later, the affidavit says.
A later investigation revealed these were the last outgoing communications from Tennille’s phone, Gardner wrote. Two numbers tried calling her phone after that, but she didn’t answer.
Jared said he didn’t remember inflicting those injuries or having a physical fight. He “admitted he could have caused the injuries; however, he maintained that he did not recall doing so,” wrote Gardner.
Next, Gardner invited Jared’s son to sit with him in the vehicle.
After he played in the championship game and came home, the youth said, he went to hang out with his teammates and didn’t return to the home until 11:30 p.m. Nov. 16. His father was sleeping on the couch that night, which was not unusual, said the son.
The son woke around 9:30 a.m. Nov. 17 and was home all day, he said. He cleaned his football gear, did homework, talked about Thanksgiving plans with his dad and went out to the family ranch to retrieve a trail cam, he said.
The son didn’t see his stepmother Tennille that day since she stayed in her room, he told Gardner, reportedly.
No one else visited that day – because they never have people over, said the son, according to the affidavit.
The son said he didn’t “see eye to eye” with his stepmother; he described her as an alcoholic, and related that she’d had a seizure when he was younger but he couldn’t recall the cause, wrote Gardner.
Scan It
Gardner applied for and received a search warrant that same evening – to scour the home, Jared’s person and Jared’s phone.
Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents Roy Warren, Garrett Eggener and Dan Allison helped with the search by conducting a FARO scan of the home and helping to examine the scene, wrote the detective.
Jared cooperated with the search, letting Gardner photograph his body. The detective found no injuries on the man, he wrote.
The Friend
Gardner called Tennille’s longtime friend Alison Penny on Nov. 18.
Penny said she and her friend shared a phone call at 3:07 p.m. Nov. 16 – the day the Erickson family returned from Laramie, and there wasn’t anything unusual about that call. Later investigation would show the call lasted about 12 minutes.
Later that afternoon Tennille Erickson texted Penny saying her husband “beat the shit” out of her, but she misspelled the expletive, leaving Penny to believe the woman was intoxicated, related Gardner.
Penny texted Tennille Erickson the next morning – Nov. 17 – asking if she was going to plunge, and once again a couple hours later asking if she was OK, but Tennille didn’t respond to either text.
The “plunge” is a reference to Tennille’s practice of plunging in a cold river for her health, the affidavit indicates.
Calling Mom And Dad
Gardner met with Tennille’s parents LaVor and Barbara Jenkins on Nov. 19, at their home in Freedom, Idaho, he wrote. There he heard murmurs of “domestic violence history” in the marriage. He also learned the pair had separated at one point and were planning on divorcing.
Court documents confirm the attempted divorce. Tennille Erickson filed for divorce Jan. 9, 2018, citing “irreconcilable differences” that aggrieved her.
Her parents tried to intervene in the proceeding because of an interest they had in a roughly $2 million property the Ericksons owned. The Ericksons were beholden to a clause that said if they chose to sell the land to a third party, they’d give half the proceeds to Tennille’s parents. That clause was to discourage such a sale, the Jenkins’ intervention filing says.
But on Oct. 12, 2018, the Ericksons agreed to dismiss their countering petitions for divorce, because they were reconciling, says the file.
Barbara Jenkins told Gardner that a family member had related that Jared broke a bottle over Tennille’s head and she had to seek care from a chiropractor.
The chiropractor, whom Gardner contacted that same day (Nov. 19), seemed “hesitant” to share Tennille’s medical records, and urged Gardner to get legal authorization to access those, wrote the detective.
The Head Injury Did It
Gardner did so. But first, he attended a Nov. 20 autopsy in the Fremont County Coroner’s Office, where forensic pathologist Dr. Randall Frost is based.
Also in attendance were Schwab and Eggener; Frost and Frost’s assistant Kirsten Kenney, says the affidavit.
Frost discovered “significant head trauma” and a subdural hematoma that he cited as the cause of Tennille’s death. He found three separate contusions on her forehead, deep scalp hemorrhaging, a contusion on her upper right eyelid and a few small, relatively faint contusions on the back of her head, says the document.
Tennille’s brain bore injuries, says the affidavit.
Head injury was her “definite cause of death,” Frost told Gardner, reportedly.
The woman also had contusions on her torso, left hand and forearm, Gardner wrote. Her liver was “significantly diseased.”
Frost wrote in an autopsy finding that blunt trauma of the head led to her death, and “chronic ethanol abuse” contributed to her demise. Her blood-alcohol content at the time of death was 0.14%, the affidavit notes, adding that no other drug presence was noted.
‘Get It Over With’
Warren and Gardner met with Jared Erickson at the Afton-based sheriff’s office on Nov. 21. At first, Jared indicated he couldn’t come until evening or the next day, but he soon called Gardner saying he wanted to “get it over with,” wrote the detective.
The three met in the interview room. Gardner told Jared he was free to go if he wished, and he told the man his Miranda rights, says the document.
Jared said he, his wife and her two sons had all travelled to Laramie Nov. 14 for the football game where his son was playing. They watched the game Nov. 15 and left for home Nov. 16, he said.
When they got back to Star Valley Ranch around 1 p.m., Jared dropped off his wife and sons and drove to Afton by himself to watch the fire trucks escort the football team, but a fire prevented that parade, he said.
He returned home about 3:30 p.m., and his wife had taken a plunge in the Salt River, Jared said.
They both started drinking vodka straight from the bottle around 4 p.m., and he consumed between six and seven shots, said Jared, according to Gardner’s account.
The man said his wife typically drinks all day long, and drank all day during the football game, which he called “embarrassing,” the document says.
Dad’s Calling
At 5 p.m. Erickson’s father called and the call lasted 20 minutes; they talked about the game and the drive home, Jared reportedly said.
When Jared emerged from his office after taking that call, he found Tennille had locked herself in their bedroom, and he decided to sleep on the couch. He assumed she was upset about the call because, in Jared’s telling, his wife would get “resentful” when he spoke to other people, Gardner related.
Jared said he didn’t remember arguing with his wife.
“I reminded him that he had told the dispatcher they got in a fight as well as Deputy Seth Lewis and myself,” Gardner noted.
The document says Jared said he couldn’t recall the argument if there was one – and he had memory lapses while drinking in the past.
As for his wife, she drinks and staggers, and she’d been staggering that evening “as usual,” Jared said, according to the affidavit.
The document says Jared said he didn’t hear any noise from the bedroom during Tennille’s hours of seclusion. Gardner juxtaposed this admission with a later theory Jared reportedly furnished, that Tennille inflicted her own head injuries by banging her head on the kitchen or bathroom counter.
The investigators discussed Tennille’s selfies with Jared once again.
The Long Quiet Day
Gardner wrote that Jared reported having checked on his wife and found her snoring multiple times throughout Nov. 17, though he said he had to enter from a deck entrance the first time since the main bedroom entrance was locked.
One of Barbara Jenkins’ later statements to the detective contrasted with this: she said she learned of her daughter’s death during a call from Jared in which he seemed to lack emotion, and in which he’d said he hadn’t checked on her before about 6 p.m., the affidavit relates.
When Jared found his wife she believed she was still breathing, but looking back, he believes she had already died by then. Her body was warm, but her gums were cold to the touch when he used his fingers to clear vomit from her mouth, he said, according to Gardner’s account.
Ten Fights
Gardner informed Jared Erickson that he’d attended the autopsy, and that it was “clear” that Tennille had died of a traumatic head injury.
Could Jared have grabbed his wife’s head and hit it on the kitchen counter? The detective asked.
“I guess,” answered Jared, according to the document. “I don’t remember anything about that.”
The pair have been physically violent for years, with about 10 fights getting physical in their 15-year marriage – and Jared usually reacting to Tennille attacking him, the man reportedly said.
Family troubles worsened these straits, he said.
One time at the Bull Moose saloon in Alpine she “slapped the shit” out of him in front of other people, Jared said, reportedly.
He also referenced marriage tensions, and said she drank the whole time they were married, Gardner related.
The document says Jared ventured that Tennille bruises easily, and sustained the bruises on her left arm and torso from falling out of her bed days before her death.
In the past, Jared said, she’s hit her head on the counter, according to the affidavit.
Jared asked if he needed an attorney, and Gardner said that was up to him.
“I’m in trouble, ain’t I?” asked Jared Erickson.
Gardner said the investigation was ongoing, but it was looking like Jared Erickson caused his wife’s injuries, the detective wrote.
Warren asked if Jared should be in trouble.
“No,” answered Jared, reportedly, “but maybe I did it.”
A Raw Exchange
One week before Thanksgiving, Jared Erickson called Gardner, and sounded distressed. He said he didn’t think he should attend his wife’s funeral because it was obvious he did it, the detective wrote.
Gardner told the man he should go to the funeral to support his children, the document says.
The detective later became worried about Jared Erickson’s state of mind, and offered to meet with him and “talk it out,” but Jared said he was in Idaho Falls and would call Gardner back when he got back.
“I never heard from (him) after that phone call,” wrote Gardner.
The detective later learned from Barbara Jenkins and from Schwab (who doubles as a funeral home director) that Gardner had requested a private, invitation-only funeral service, Gardner added.
The Kids
Gardner talked with Tennille’s sons and daughter in separate interviews.
They described their mother as an alcoholic, says the document.
Jared also drank, said one son, but not as much as Tennille, who struggled with mood swings, a hernia, and swollen feet.
The couple’s ownership of the Jenkins farm caused contention, said the son.
Tennille had a nosebleed the whole journey home from the football game, he added.
The Chiropractor, The Hairdresser
When Gardner obtained legal authorization and eventually received the chiropractor’s records Nov. 26, the chiropractor described an incident in which a Stanley cup had hit Tennille’s head; she related the incident vaguely, and he told her to get stitches or a butterfly bandage for the wound.
Gardner heard from Tennille’s friend and hairdresser, also in November. The hairdresser said she worked on Tennille’s hair every five-to-six weeks, and would find bruising or, one time, a gash on the woman’s head, says the affidavit.
Tennille attributed one “weird bruise” to falling after getting up to use the bathroom while tangled in her sheets one night, said the hairdresser. The hairdresser also knew Tennille to be a “heavy drinker,” she added.
Yet, Tennille attributed one stitched-up gash from the prior winter to a physical, drunken fight with her husband, the hairdresser said.
Those Don’t Mix Well
Gardner on Jan. 6 interviewed Star Valley paramedic Scott Ringle, who discussed his attempts to treat Tennille when he arrived at her home Nov. 17.
The paramedic had noticed Tennille’s medications, and knew some of them did not mix well with alcohol. He’d noticed a bottle of clear alcohol on a stand, the affidavit relates.
She was warm to the touch and rigor hadn’t set in while he treated her, said Ringle.
Gardner had a second forensic pathologist review Tennille’s autopsy reports and photographs.
The pathologist, Dr. Tom Bennett, said she had cirrhosis of the liver, which was of concern, but without the head injury she would have survived for some time.
Her medical condition did hinder her body’s ability to clot blood, which made her more susceptible to the hematoma and brain swelling that followed her head injury, he added.
It would be a “stretch” to call her injuries accidental, said Bennett, reportedly.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
