A Laramie man with at least three convictions for lewd behavior and exposing himself to underage girls is accused of fondling himself in front of a 14-year-old girl while her mother was 10 feet away inside the house.
Jacob Daniel Cox, born in 1980, was bound over to Albany County District Court on Monday on a single felony charge of sexual exploitation of children.
He’s accused of encouraging the teen girl to come into his room while he was masturbating, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in his case written by Laramie Police Detective Cheryl Kondratieff.
When the girl quickly left, she said Cox tried to get her to come back into the room by calling out to, “Come back in here,” and, “Wait a second,” the affidavit says.
That happened sometime in November 2025, Kondratieff wrote, adding that Cox wasn’t arrested until mid-March because of his job as a long-haul trucker taking him out of state.
On Jan. 18, Cox was reported to police for allegedly intentionally walking into a bathroom with the same teen girl while she was wearing a towel, “despite being told to wait,” the affidavit says.
Then in a hallway outside the bathroom, Cox “exposed his penis and touched himself” in front of the girl, the document adds.
At that time, Cox denied intentionally exposing himself, then went on to try and explain an inappropriate text message he sent to the girl as being an accident.
“Cox stated he had accidentally sent a text message to (the girl) that said, ‘Would you like to see my (no words but gestured to his genitalia,’” the affidavit says.
In that case, he was ticketed by the Laramie Police Department for voyeurism.
Cox lives in the house with the teen girl and her mother, who are family. When the mother confronted Cox about the bathroom incident a few days later, Cox told her he was “horny,” Kondratieff wrote.
The mother also was home when the girl walked in on Cox pleasuring himself, the affidavit says, but told police that at first she believed Cox’s assertion that the girl walked in without asking, the affidavit says.
When she pressed him about it, Cox admitted the girl knocked first and told the mother that “he would turn himself in,” the affidavit says.
‘Come Back In Here’
Cox didn’t do that, and neither did the mother, the affidavit says.
The bedroom incident wasn’t reported to police until Jan. 25, when a local pastor reported the teen girl had told someone about it.
“The pastor added that when (the girl) opened the door and saw Cox masturbating, (she) shut the door, and Cox invited (her) back in after the door was shut,” the affidavit says.
In her own interview with police a few days later, the girl said the bedroom incident happened after she came home from school. She put her backpack in her room, then noticed the door to Cox’s room was cracked open.
“She knocked on the door and through the cracked door, asked if (she) could come in,” the affidavit says. “Cox said ‘yeah.’ (She) walked into the room since Cox said ‘yeah.’’
That’s when she saw Cox lying on the bed with his jeans pulled down to mid-thighs. She observed that his “right hand was cupping his penis … and Cox’s other hand was either on the bed or holding his phone,” according to the affidavit.
She immediately turned and walked out of the room.
“Cox said, ‘No (name redacted), come back in here,’” Kondratieff wrote. “That confused (the girl) because there was not enough time for Cox to get dressed and decent.
“(She) was processing what had happened, so told him to ‘hold on and wait a second.’ She walked directly to (her mother), who was sitting on the couch less than 10 feet from Cox’s bedroom, and whispered that (she) thought Cox was masturbating in the bedroom.”
In the meantime, Cox continued yelling for the girl to come back into the bedroom.
Her mother told the girl “to do the dishes and not think about it, stating she would talk to Cox about it,” the affidavit says.
“Cox came out of his room and said he was moving out, which was a pattern of behavior when he got in trouble,” the affidavit adds. Then the mother “got up to stop Cox from leaving.”
When Cox told the mother he was leaving, she “told him she did not think that was necessary, because at that time she did not hear the full story and assumed it was an accident that (the girl) walked in on Cox masturbating,” Kondratieff wrote.
‘A Pattern’
That pattern of behavior referenced by the girl includes several convictions and other reported incidents of Cox exposing his genitals to girls and women, the affidavit says.
• A Dec. 19, 2007, conviction for aggravated indecent liberties with a child younger than 14f, lewd fondling and touching.
• A report from Kansas that on March 2, 2017, Cox allegedly held his genitals through the zipper of his pants and exposed himself to a 20-year-old cashier at a store.
• A July 12, 2017, conviction for lewd and lascivious behavior with someone younger than 18.
• A report out of Kansas that on Aug. 22, 2019, Cox allegedly followed a 39-year-old across the street and pulled his penis out of his shorts.
• A Jan. 2, 2020, conviction for lewd and lascivious behavior with someone younger than 18.
“The prior reports and convictions showed Cox had a pattern of inappropriate exposure of his genitalia,” the affidavit says.
Cox remains in the Albany County Detention Center on a $40,000 cash-only bond. An arraignment to enter his plea in felony court hasn’t yet been set.
He’s been approved by the Circuit Court to have a public defender appointed to represent him. On his application for a public defender, he answered a question about the special circumstances that limit his ability to pay for an attorney with, “I’m in jail.”
If convicted, he could get five to 12 years in prison, a fine of not more than $10,000, or both.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
