Tuggle goes to prison for life

The man who raped and stabbed his now 12-year-old daughter and then left her for dead was sentenced Monday to two life terms in prison with no chance for parole.

First District Judge Fred Gibler gave John Rollins Tuggle credit for accepting responsibility for the crime and taking a plea bargain rather than put the young victim through the emotional pain of a court trial.

“Other than those two things, it’s hard to find anything positive to state about Mr. Tuggle,” Gibler said before sending the man to prison for the rest of his life.

Tuggle hadn’t seen his daughter for 10 years when he came to Idaho to visit his ex-wife and children in July 2005. The 37-year-old had recently completed a nine-year prison sentence for raping his wife’s 13-year-old sister.

Tuggle’s daughter, who has cut all ties with her father and also changed her last name, stood in front of the Wallace courtroom and looked Tuggle in the face and spoke clearly and loudly as she read a letter to him.

“You left me to die, and for that you do not deserve life,” the girl said. She told Tuggle he had stolen her innocence and her dreams, but that she believed she would overcome what he had done to her.

“I will remove your actions from my mind, as I’ve already removed you from my heart,” she said.

The sister of Tuggle’s wife, Crystal Teupel, who became pregnant from the rape, said Monday that she was glad to finally have some closure. She attended the sentencing hearing and held hands with Tuggle’s daughter during part of the hearing.

Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Peacock told Gibler that when Tuggle was in prison he had written to his ex-wife and children and said that he hoped to reconcile and build a relationship once he was released.

He came to visit the family in Athol in July, Peacock said, and his ex-wife allowed him supervised visitation for the first two days. Peacock said that the first weekend went so well that Terri Teupel allowed Tuggle on July 20 to spend some time with his daughter alone.

That’s when Tuggle took the girl to the woods north of Prichard, Idaho. Peacock said Tuggle told the girl that he wanted to teach her to shoot a bow and arrow, but she said she would rather go to the mall.

At that point, something changed, Peacock said.

Tuggle told his daughter that he wanted to tie her up so she could tie her brother up some time as a prank, Peacock said. The girl got her feet untied on her own, Peacock said, and that was when Tuggle restrained and raped her.Tuggle then led the girl up a trail where he stabbed her in the throat, breast and twice in the abdomen, Peacock said. Then, Peacock said, Tuggle laid the girl down, cut the ropes from her hands and sat and smoked two cigarettes as she lay there bleeding.

Hours later, a family looking for a campsite heard the girl’s cries for help. Tuggle spent a week on the run, hiding out in the woods, before he wandered into Wallace looking for food and was recognized.

The prosecutor asked Gibler to sentence Tuggle to two life terms for the rape and kidnapping of his daughter and tack on an additional 15 years to each term because a deadly weapon was used to commit the crimes. He asked that the sentences be served consecutively, without parole.

Gibler said he would run the sentences concurrently, adding that Tuggle will be in prison for the rest of his life, anyhow.

After Gibler sentenced Tuggle, Terri Teupel faced her ex-husband.

“To me you are more monster than human,” she said, adding she has no idea how someone could viciously assault their own daughter. “We are going to live as though you never existed.”