The case moved through an arrest, contested charges and a preliminary hearing before Cole Klemke admitted attempted murder in 2026.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — What began on a Saturday morning in June 2024 with a pregnant woman wounded beside a Mira Mesa ATM concluded more than two years later when Cole Klemke pleaded guilty to attempted murder and a judge sentenced him to 10 years in state prison.
The time between the attack and sentencing produced several distinct stages in the case: an overnight effort to identify the assailant, Klemke’s arrest the next day, an initial not-guilty plea, a preliminary hearing in 2026, a guilty plea in July and sentencing in August. Those proceedings added detail to the initial police account while leaving one central question unanswered. Investigators said from the start that the woman apparently did not know her attacker and that he made no demand before assaulting her. No motive was publicly established by the time the case ended.
The chronology began about 10 a.m. June 15, 2024. The woman, then 25 and four months pregnant, drove to an ATM near the Target shopping center on Mira Mesa Boulevard. She got out because she needed to reach the machine. Prosecutors later said Klemke observed her from across the parking lot for about a minute. After she withdrew money, he approached from behind. San Diego police initially said she was stabbed in the neck, chin and shoulder. Later court testimony described wounds to her face and neck and said the assault knocked her to the pavement.
According to testimony presented as the prosecution developed, the violence continued after she fell. Klemke punched her and attempted to stab her additional times, witnesses in the court record said. The woman fought back by kicking him, and prosecutors said her resistance caused him to flee. Reports from the immediate aftermath also said bystanders moved to help. Paramedics transported the woman to a hospital. Police described her injuries as non-life-threatening and said she was released that same day. Authorities did not publicly identify the woman, and reporting on the case has continued to withhold her name.
Police began searching for the attacker using evidence from the surrounding shopping center. Northeastern Division detectives obtained photographs and video showing a man inside Target shortly before the stabbing. Officers distributed surveillance images to the public. The strategy quickly produced leads: the Police Department said several community members assisted, and later testimony from Detective Kate Brooker said a tipster identified Klemke from the pictures. Police took Klemke, then 27, into custody at about 2:30 p.m. June 16. Their arrest announcement identified him as a Carmel Valley resident.
Four days after the attack, the case entered its first major courtroom stage. Klemke pleaded not guilty on June 20, 2024, to charges including attempted murder, mayhem and robbery. Deputy District Attorney Spencer Sharpe told the court that Klemke had watched the woman before approaching and described the assault as unprovoked. Police separately said there had been no exchange of words between the two, no demand for money and no property taken. Klemke remained in custody without bail after the arraignment. Because the accusations had not yet been adjudicated, the charges at that point represented the prosecution’s claims rather than established findings.
The arraignment also revealed that prosecutors were dealing with allegations from another encounter that predated the ATM attack by two weeks. Sharpe said Klemke had been arrested after allegedly confronting a motorist June 1. According to the prosecutor’s account, Klemke stood in front of the vehicle, used a knife to mark an X on its hood and demanded that the driver get out. The driver left instead. The District Attorney’s Office had not completed its review of that matter before June 15, Sharpe said. Felony vandalism and brandishing allegations tied to the earlier episode were later included alongside the charges arising from the stabbing.
The passage of time brought more testimony but not a publicly announced explanation for why the ATM attack occurred. At a preliminary hearing in 2026, evidence described the woman being attacked from behind, falling, being punched and continuing to resist while Klemke tried to stab her again. Brooker also testified about the surveillance-image release and the tip that helped police identify him. A preliminary hearing is used to determine whether sufficient evidence exists for a felony case to proceed; it is not itself a trial. The case continued after that hearing, but ultimately never reached a jury verdict.
On July 10, 2026, Klemke pleaded guilty to attempted murder. The plea marked a significant legal change from his initial not-guilty position and eliminated the need for prosecutors to prove that count at trial. News reports published that day said he was expected to receive a 10-year state prison term the following month. The available sentencing reports focus on the attempted-murder conviction and do not provide a complete count-by-count explanation of how every charge filed in 2024 was resolved. The conviction that forms the basis of the reported sentence is Klemke’s attempted-murder plea.
The final major stage came Aug. 11. A judge imposed the expected 10-year prison sentence, and the woman addressed the proceeding remotely. For the first time in extensive public reporting on the case, her words provided a fuller picture of what happened after the brief police chronology ended. She described sitting in her vehicle after the assault and trying to stop her wounds from bleeding. She said the attack left permanent scars and nerve damage. She also described an extended period when fear made it difficult for her to be alone in public, along with emotional effects that remained more than two years later.
Her account also put the original description of the injuries into context. Police had correctly reported in June 2024 that she survived and was released from the hospital the same day. At sentencing, however, the woman described consequences that did not end with her discharge. The records and reports reviewed for this story do not say whether the pregnancy was medically affected, so no conclusion about that issue can be drawn. What is documented is that she was four months pregnant when attacked and that she survived wounds police recorded in three areas of her upper body.
The sentencing closed the attempted-murder prosecution with a conviction rather than a trial verdict. It did not resolve the question of motive. Police had said Klemke made no statement or demand during the attack and took no property, while video reviewed by investigators indicated the woman apparently did not know he was approaching. Later reporting around the plea and sentence did not disclose a different explanation. The safest description of the public record is therefore limited: Klemke admitted attempted murder, but authorities have not publicly said why he targeted the victim.
As of Sept. 22, no subsequent report located for this update changes Klemke’s 10-year state prison sentence. The legal timeline now runs from the June 15, 2024, attack through the June 16 arrest, the initial arraignment, the 2026 preliminary hearing and guilty plea, and the Aug. 11 sentencing. The woman’s recovery, according to her own statement, has followed a longer and less definite timetable.
Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.