MERCER COUNTY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A woman was held at gunpoint, kidnapped, and sexually assaulted while she was waiting for her son to get off from work.
On June 27, 2024, at approximately 12:15 am, Lieutenant W.E. Rose and Deputy Nelson responded to a kidnapping complaint on the Coal Heritage Road in the Bluefield area of Mercer County, West Virginia, 24701.
The caller stated they had located a female victim, who they had tried to report missing the previous evening on June 26, 2024. The caller advised that the woman had been kidnapped and was found in the area.
Upon arrival, Lieutenant Rose and Deputy Nelson spoke with the victim, who provided a verbal and written statement of the incident. Carver reported that around 10 pm, while waiting in the Gino’s Pizza parking lot for her son to get off work, a Black male approximately 6 feet tall and heavier set, wearing black cargo pants, a maroon sweatshirt, and a red, white, and black hat, approached her vehicle and asked to sit inside due to the rain.
The victim refused, and the male left but then returned with a small semi-automatic firearm and ordered her to drive northbound on Route 52 and Coal Heritage Road. The male ordered the female to turn around and drive northbound toward Bluefield.
The victim continued driving northbound on Route 52, turning onto Route 20 (New Hope Road), and then made a right turn through the parking lot of First Community Bank, turning left back onto Route 52 heading southbound. The male then ordered her to pull into a vacant parking lot on Coal Heritage Road, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and struck her in the back of the head and face with the firearm.
After being sexually assaulted, the female was able to exit the vehicle, strike the male, and flee, hiding in the woods. Other subjects in the area had been searching for the woman and located her around 11:15 pm in the yard of a vacant home near the incident location.
Lieutenant Rose and Deputy Nelson observed the vehicle involved, a 2008 Chevrolet Suburban, with the driver’s door, rear driver’s side door, and front passenger door open. At the owner’s request, they searched the vehicle and found a cellphone in the front passenger seat that did not belong to the victim or anyone in her family.
Based on the investigation, including the cellphone evidence and surveillance footage from nearby businesses, they identified the suspect as Jalen Hale, a Black male born on March 15, 2003, approximately 6 feet tall and 290 pounds.
They charged Jalen Hale with kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault, and the use or presentation of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
