A handgun, spent casing and statements place Drake Ingalls at the scene, while the disputed circumstances behind the shot remain central to his murder case.
NEWCASTLE, Wyo. — The physical evidence collected after Jason Greene was killed in his Newcastle home tells investigators where a gun was fired and links Drake Ingalls to the shot. What it does not settle is the central dispute over what was happening seconds before Ingalls pulled the trigger.
That distinction has shaped the case against Ingalls, a South Dakota man charged with second-degree murder after the Aug. 9 shooting. Police recovered his 9 mm Glock Model 17 from his car, located a spent 9 mm casing near the home’s side entrance and found Greene dead inside with an apparent single gunshot wound to the chest. Ingalls admitted firing. But he told investigators he acted after seeing Greene restrain the woman Ingalls had driven to meet. She told investigators there was no physical assault and said the gun did not need to be fired.
The first officers reached the residence at about 4:54 a.m. after a report of a shooting. According to a probable cause affidavit summarized in local reporting, officers found Ingalls and the woman in the roadway or outside the home. She appeared frantic and was screaming incoherently, according to the document. Officers reported indications that both had consumed alcohol. Ingalls told an officer that he had shot a person in the chest and said his firearm was in his vehicle. Police detained him before officers entered the home.
Inside, an officer found Greene on the floor between a hallway and the living room. Emergency medical personnel confirmed that he was dead. Outside, investigators later documented a silver 9 mm shell casing about 3 to 4 feet from the side entrance. The Glock was recovered from the center console area of Ingalls’ red Toyota Camry. Those pieces of evidence were consistent with the core point on which the witnesses did agree: Ingalls fired one shot toward Greene from outside or near the doorway.
Newcastle Police Chief Derek Thompson asked the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation to take over the inquiry. Special Agent Zack Miller was assigned to the case, and investigators began separating the shared chronology from the conflicting witness accounts. The inquiry included interviews along with analysis of the scene, physical evidence and digital evidence. Ingalls’ statements gave authorities one explanation for the shooting. The woman’s interview supplied another, making their descriptions of the doorway encounter a major focus of the probable cause case.
Ingalls told investigators that he had been in his car or across the street when he heard shouting and the woman yelling for help several times. He retrieved the Glock, chambered a hollow-point round and approached. Coming around a shed, he said he saw Greene behind the woman at the doorway. Ingalls described Greene’s arms as being under hers and said another hand was at the back of her head or hair. He believed Greene was trying to pull the woman inside, according to his statement in the affidavit.
Ingalls said he tried to pull the door open and pointed the pistol at Greene, telling him to release the woman. He said Greene continued trying to pull her inward and began shutting the door. Ingalls told investigators that the woman was positioned in front of Greene, leaving Greene’s chest visible. He estimated that he fired from about 10 to 12 feet away and believed the bullet struck the center of Greene’s chest. Greene then moved backward and fell inside the residence.
The woman’s account challenged the premise that a physical rescue was necessary. She told agents that Greene had never assaulted her during the encounter and that they were not in a physical fight. She did not witness the instant of the shooting, according to the affidavit, but told investigators Ingalls did not need to use the gun. During her interview, investigators noted an abrasion on her knee but did not report other visible bruising or injuries or evidence that her hair had been pulled.
Her condition at the time of the confrontation may also receive scrutiny as the case proceeds. She acknowledged drinking several alcoholic beverages and told an investigator she was highly intoxicated and may have blacked out during parts of the night. That disclosure does not establish that her account is incorrect, just as Ingalls’ admission that he had been drinking does not by itself establish that his description is unreliable. The statements instead give attorneys material to examine when assessing recollection, perception and consistency against the other evidence.
The evidence also has to be viewed alongside what happened before the group reached Greene’s home. Ingalls had traveled from Belle Fourche to Newcastle for a first meeting with the woman after they connected through Tinder. The two spent part of the evening drinking and went to a local bar. While they were together, she received an insulting text from Greene. She later asked Ingalls to drive her to Greene’s home and told him Greene had abused or mistreated her in the past, according to the affidavit. She instructed Ingalls to come help if he heard her yelling.
That prior instruction is part of the context Ingalls’ defense can point to when explaining why he approached with a firearm after hearing calls for help. But investigators also obtained the woman’s direct denial that Greene physically attacked her during the confrontation. The court record therefore contains evidence pointing in different directions on the reason Ingalls says he intervened. The document does not resolve those differences, and probable cause findings are not verdicts on witness credibility.
What happened immediately after the shooting is also documented. Ingalls and the woman got into his car and drove around the block before returning, according to the affidavit. She called 911, and they waited for police. Ingalls identified himself to the responding officer as the shooter rather than denying involvement, according to the filing. He was arrested later Aug. 9. Police and DCI then continued processing evidence and interviewing the people involved.
Prosecutors charged Ingalls with second-degree murder. Wyoming law describes that offense as purposely and maliciously killing a person without premeditation, and it carries a sentence of at least 20 years and as much as life imprisonment upon conviction. Ingalls’ lawyer, David Holmes, has said his client intends to plead not guilty and expects to argue that he acted to defend another person. After an August preliminary hearing, the case was bound over to Weston County District Court. That step allowed the charge to proceed but did not determine guilt.
Ingalls was held on a $250,000 cash-only bond, with conditions imposed for any release that included GPS monitoring, restrictions on alcohol and firearms, no contact with the woman and travel limitations. His attorney has emphasized that Ingalls had no prior relationship with Greene and has characterized the single shot as an act taken in response to perceived danger. Prosecutors’ decision to pursue second-degree murder means the state is treating the shooting as an unlawful homicide, an allegation it would have to prove in court.
For now, the case contains greater certainty about the mechanics of the shooting than about its justification. A recovered handgun, one casing, the location of Greene’s body and Ingalls’ own statement account for much of what physically occurred. The disputed human observations — whether Greene was holding the woman, whether she was in immediate danger and what Ingalls reasonably perceived — remain unresolved in the public record. The most recent verified reporting reviewed for this article shows the second-degree murder charge pending in District Court without a final disposition.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 22, 2026.