CASPER, Wyo. — The Natrona County District Attorney’s Office has decided not to prosecute a Casper man who brought a gun to his daughter’s house last March, resulting in a confrontation that killed his daughter’s boyfriend, 47-year-old Casper resident Jeremiah Wayne Reyes.
Evidence of self-defense — or defense for others — “would provide a complete defense to the killing of Mr. Reyes” at trial, Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson wrote in a “no-prosecute” letter provided to Oil City News by the DA’s office.
Nelson claims the man reacted suddenly to the suspicion that his daughter was being abused, and that there was no evidence of malice in his actions that resulted in a struggle with Reyes over the firearm and the fatal discharge.
On Wednesday, four months after the shooting death at a south Casper residence, the Casper Police Department informed the media that it had sent recommended charges to the District Attorney’s Office. The affidavit recommended that Clarence Lee Daniels, 74, be charged with second-degree homicide.
The district attorney’s office determined that Daniels acted legally when he went to the residence with a.44 Magnum to intervene on behalf of his daughter, Reyes’ long-term girlfriend.
On Wednesday, District Attorney Dan Itzen told Oil City News that there was a documented history of domestic violence between Reyes and Daniels’ daughter, including Reyes’ 2017 conviction for aggravated assault and strangulation, which resulted in a four- to 10-year sentence. The incident also resulted in the woman being hospitalized.
According to Daniels’ statements in the case report, on March 8, 2025, he received a call from his daughter, which reignited his concerns about ongoing domestic violence. He claimed he went over to his daughter’s house on the 800 block of West 53rd Street.
Itzen observed that Daniels had left the house without shoes on that snowy evening.
According to the affidavit, the woman claimed that when Reyes learned her father was on his way, he grabbed her by the throat, threw her to the ground, pulled her by the ear, and hit her on the head. Photos of the woman’s neck revealed a red mark consistent with these claims.
Both Daniels and his daughter stated that Daniels arrived with the gun by his side, and that Reyes appeared “flying out of nowhere” and pinned Daniels to the couch in a struggle for the gun. The struggle moved into the bedroom, where the woman did not follow, but she did hear a gunshot.
She remembered hearing her father say, “No, Jeremy, wake up, buddy,” following the gunshot.
Reyes was discovered dead in the bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Casper Police Department’s affidavit, which was also provided by the District Attorney’s office.
In the “no-prosecute” letter, Nelson states that Daniels owned the home and was selling it to his daughter, who lived there with Reyes. Nelson stated that there were no trespassing warnings or other reasons why Daniels could not lawfully be at the residence.
Nelson stated that there was “compelling and persuasive” evidence that Daniels acted in the heat of passion, a legal concept that protects behavior that would be aroused in an ordinary person in similar circumstances.
In Wyoming, “sudden heat of passion” and “malicious intent” — both required to support a homicide charge — cannot coexist in one person’s mind in the same instance.
The district attorney’s office stated that Reyes could bench press 700 pounds and could easily have overpowered Daniels and taken the gun, with uncertain consequences.
The affidavit states that Daniels and other witnesses reported another violent confrontation between the two men in the summer of 2024, shortly after Reyes was released from prison.
Daniels, who was concerned that his daughter was being abused, allegedly barged into the house while Reyes was in the bathroom and fired a shot at the floor by his feet.
Police discovered the bullet after pulling back the floorboards. The affidavit included one count of aggravated assault.
