Man who served 20 years for manslaughter faces more prison in Tri-City kidnapping
A convicted murderer who sent police on a nationwide manhunt for allegedly kidnapping and threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend said in court Tuesday he intends to take a plea deal.
Jack Thomas Waldrop III of the Tri-Cities pleaded innocent in May 2022 to first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault and violating a court order.
Police said he assaulted his ex-girlfriend before driving her against her will from Kennewick to an Ellensburg gas station in March of that year. He allegedly threatened to kill her, then himself. She got away, and Waldrop fled before police to find him.
He’d just gotten out of an Oregon prison a few years earlier after serving 20 years for strangling and killing a former girlfriend.
In 2022, he was eventually arrested in California on a nationwide warrant issued in Benton County.
On Tuesday, Waldrop, 57, said in court that he intended to change his pleas to the kidnapping charge and order violation. In exchange, prosecutors are expected to recommend dropping the assault charge.
He is expected to face up to eight years in prison.
Waldrop — who’s been in custody in the Benton County jail for almost four years — said he had no concerns or questions about the change of plea document, but Judge Jacqueline Shea-Brown noted he was “waffling” his answers when asked if he was doing this voluntarily.
Waldrop is expected to return to court Wednesday to make the plea change official. He was unable to on Tuesday because of a problem with the document, and his attorney was only attending the hearing remotely.
Previous manslaughter
In October 2018, he was released from Oregon Department of Corrections after serving time for the death of his former girlfriend, Angela Walker, who died in 1998 from asphyxiation.
The couple reportedly had a tumultuous relationship, and he had a prior conviction for assaulting her. He was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter.
This latest case involved a girlfriend, then 63. The couple had broken up, and she got a protection order against him.
On March 11, 2022, despite the court order, Waldrop offered to give his ex a ride to run an errand. At one point, she overheard a conversation with someone on the phone, which prompted her to get out of the truck and head toward a bus stop, according to court records and Kennewick police.
He followed her and insisted that she get back in the truck. He promised to take her back home. Once she was back inside, they started arguing, and it turned violent.
He told her “she was going to die today,” court records said.
At one point she fell out of the truck, and Waldrop allegedly stomped her, yanked her hair and punched her in the back, said court records.
He drove first toward Yakima and then toward Snoqualmie Pass. Along the way he allegedly continued to backhanding her and say he was going to kill her and himself.
In Ellensburg, he told her to get cleaned up. She hid in the bathroom at a gas station, and Waldrop was reportedly told off by shoppers when he tried yelling at her to come out.
An employee noticed the woman hiding, and she asked for help. Police were called, and Waldrop drove away.
She was taken to a hospital where they found she had two broken ribs and a fractured sternum.
Four days later, Waldrop was found parked in the middle of a California road by police. A Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy requested his license, but Waldrop refused and sped away.
Officers gave chase and met up with Waldrop several miles away. He was originally arrested on suspicion of reckless driving and DUI.
This story includes previous reporting from Cameron Probert.
This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 5:44 PM.
