A Sheridan man accused of punching a longtime hockey coachSo hard it killed him, he claims he acted in self-defense after the hockey coach repeatedly hit and assaulted him outside a rodeo last summer.

Cody Joseph McCalla, 34, faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the July 13 death of Patrick Mudd, 48. The charge is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, plus the loss of gun, voting and other rights.

The charging affidavit says the men had a dispute over a parking spot on July 12 in a lot near a rodeo in Sheridan. Witnesses said they heard Mudd tell McCalla to leave him alone and heard the sound of “fingers hitting” something before seeing Mudd fall to the ground, the document said.

Mudd’s girlfriend made a public statement after the death, saying McCalla was drunk and “punched” Mudd.

In a self-defense petition, McCalla’s attorney, Ryan Wright, filed counters Nov. 6 with the eyewitness account of McCalla’s friend, who was also there. The petition alleges that Mudd started the fight and repeatedly punched McCalla, even when McCalla was on the ground.

The judge in the case, Sheridan District Court Judge Benjamin Kirven, may schedule a self-defense hearing to hear Wright’s side of the argument against the prosecutor. A date for this has not yet appeared in the case file.

More detail now

It was around 6 p.m. on July 12, a Friday night, when McCalla picked up his friend and drove to the Sheridan WYO Rodeo.

McCalla spotted an open parking spot on 5th^th Street near the Sheridan County Fairgrounds. The two men also noticed a black Ford Expedition parked on the street that appeared to be dropping off someone on the road, the filing states, which draws from the friend’s account.

They saw an open parking spot behind a pickup that was big enough for McCalla to park his pickup, so McCalla pulled into the spot.

The black Ford Expedition — driven by Mudd’s girlfriend — reared McCalla’s truck, breaking the plastic on the lower left front bumper, the filing said.

The filing alleges Mudd yelled insults at McCalla and McCalla’s friend.

In retreat

McCalla and his friend pulled over and found another parking spot further away from the rodeo, according to the filing. But on their way to the rodeo, they ran into Mudd again.

“Who were you calling (complaint)?” McCalla asked Mudd, according to the filing.

Mudd appeared angry and ready to fight, the filing said.

“Mr. Mudd grabbed Mr. McCalla by the shirt and began punching Mr. McCalla in the face,” the filing states, adding that the men continued to struggle and stumbled into a small shed nearby. where Mudd “pressed Mr. McCalla against the shed with one hand and punched Mr. McCalla with the other hand.”

McCalla broke free from the shed, and Mudd followed him into the grass and continued to punch him, knocking him to his hands and knees, the defense’s filing alleges.

The filing says McCalla got up and fought Mudd, who continued to punch him, knocking him to the ground and punching him more.

Stop

The filing says McCalla’s friend asked him to stop, and Mudd aggressively turned on the friend.

“After severely beating Mr. McCalla, Mr. Mudd let him get up,” the filing continues. “Mr. Mudd was spinning around and approaching Mr. McCalla.”

McCalla questioned whether all of that was necessary, just out of a parking dispute, according to the filing.

Fearing he would be hit again, McCalla hit Mudd, the filing states. Mudd fell to the ground.

Some bystanders tried to give Mudd first aid and called for help.

McCalla and his friend had initially walked away from Mudd, but then returned to Mudd and tried to help him, the document says, adding that Mudd’s girlfriend pushed them away.

First responders arrived and took Mudd to the hospital.

A Sheridan police officer at the scene told another officer to “leave (Mudd) a battery ticket,” the filing says, citing the officer’s body-worn camera.

McCalla was arrested for assault.

Mudd died the next day.

Standing

Wyoming law has several self-defense provisions.

One says that a person can use “reasonable” self-defense in reaction to a reasonable belief that they will be injured, seriously injured, or killed.

The law indicates a kind of proportionality: if someone reasonably believes they will be seriously injured or killed by an action, they can retaliate in kind.

The state has another law that says if a person is not the original aggressor and fights back in a place they legally occupy, they have no duty to retreat.

Wright’s filing argues that McCalla meets all of those standards.

“When Mr. McCalla was able to regain his feet, Mr. Mudd again began to close the distance between the two of them and moved in a manner that caused Mr. McCalla to believe that Mr. Mudd’s attack was not over,” says the defense attorney . submission.

And they call it John’s Hearing

McCalla’s attorney may end up repeating that argument and calling the witness to a self-defense hearing, which Wyoming prosecutors call a “John hearing.”

The defense will have to make a prima facie case that McCalla acted in self-defense. If Wright can do that, the prosecutor in the case will then have a chance to prove by a tougher standard — a preponderance of the evidence — that McCalla did not act in self-defense to keep the case alive.

State law says people acting in self-defense “shall not” be prosecuted. If McCalla makes her point and the prosecutor doesn’t make hers, the judge must dismiss the case.

A counterargument by the Sheridan County Prosecutor’s Office did not appear in Wednesday’s court filing.

Clair McFarland can be contacted at [email protected].