A Punch Over A Parking Dispute Kills Sheridan Hockey Coach  

A Sheridan man faces up to 20 years in prison, accused of punching a man so hard he died after a parking argument.

Cody Joseph McCalla, 33, was charged with involuntary manslaughter Monday in Sheridan Circuit Court.

The charge follows a fight Friday outside the local rodeo in Sheridan, in which McCalla punched local hockey coach and player Patrick Mudd so hard, Mudd died over the weekend, according to court documents and local residents’ statements.

Mudd’s friends from the Sheridan hockey community told Cowboy State Daily he was a loving family man and a passionate hockey player and coach.

The Incident

Sheridan Police Officer Jeremy Kmett responded at about 4 p.m. Friday to the area outside the Sheridan Rodeo, in the 1900 block of West 5th Street, says an evidentiary affidavit filed Monday.

“I arrived and found one male lying on the ground in a puddle of blood,” Kmett wrote in the affidavit. Another male, McCalla, was nearby with blood on his face and hands, a bruised nose and swollen cheeks, the document said.

McCalla reportedly said he was in a fight with the man on the ground, who was identified as Mudd, and that he only hit him one time.

The affidavit says emergency personnel treated Mudd, who was unconscious. He died over the weekend.

Eyewitnesses

Two female eyewitnesses told Kmett that the men were having an argument about a parking related issue. They heard Mudd tell McCalla to leave him alone, then they heard the sound of knuckles smacking something and saw Mudd fall to the ground, the affidavit relates.

McCalla’s friend, who had come to the area with him, said they were trying to park their vehicle, when they pulled into a spot behind Mudd’s vehicle. The friend said Gage accidentally backed into his truck, and that he parked down the road to “get away from the crash,” the court document said.

McCalla’s friend told police that Mudd jumped out of his SUV and started yelling at him and at McCalla – and the two approached Mudd.

Mudd and McCalla got into what the friend described as a mutual shoving match. He said Mudd punched McCalla in the face, and McCall stood up and punched Mudd – who hit the ground and bled, the affidavit said. 

Ready To Talk

In a public Facebook post Sunday, Mudd’s girlfriend Jenn Gage described the incident differently than McCalla’s friend had.

“He suffered a severe traumatic brain injury from a drunk a-hole that was trying to squeeze into (the) parking spot that I was already pulling into,” wrote Gage. “After some words, the driver pulled off & parked elsewhere but then later attacked Patrick as we were leaving our car.”

Gage got them broken up and the group separated, she wrote. But as they walked away and looked over Mudd’s torn shirt, “the guy came back & suckered (sic) punched Patrick square in the lip. He blacked out before his head hit the cement.” 

An ambulance took Mudd to a Sheridan facility where he was stabilized, then a life flight took him to Billings, Gage wrote.

“By far the worst 36 hours of my life,” says the post. “The brain swelling & bleeding are so severe that he has not had any brain function since his head hit the ground. We will be turning off life support & saying our final goodbyes later today.”

Gage said she’s haunted by all the things that could have happened differently. She voiced both regret over the tragedy but expressed gratitude over the cheerful final days of Mudd’s life, prior to the incident, and the community’s massive outpouring of support.

“I can feel everyone leaning in,” she wrote. “Thank you for that. We will need it.”

The Kids' Hockey Sticks

It’s a tradition in the hockey community for everyone to put their hockey sticks on their front porches to mourn a lost player. But the northern Wyoming hockey community turned out with even more fervor for Mudd, by lining up more sticks along Mudd's driveway.

Dan Carlin, a community hockey leader, said he arranged most of the hockey sticks from his gear room, but others came along and added theirs.

"Mudd was pretty much larger than life," said Carlin, adding that Mudd was a "huge protector" who had patience for the high school kids he coached, and "I'm finding out how much (the kids) loved him."

When she talked of seeing the lineup, Amy LeDoux became tearful.

LeDoux said Mudd has coached her women’s team, and was a generous and passionate mentor, who loved his family intensely.

“All these poor kids and family members and hockey teammates,“  said LeDoux. “You can see how much he influenced people’s lives.”

The hardest part of the tragedy for LeDoux, she said, is that Mudd still has kids at home.

Brad Viren, another adult hockey leaguer, said he’s known Mudd since the latter moved to the Sheridan area from Colorado roughly a decade ago.

“You’d probably be hard-pressed to find somebody to say anything bad about Pat,” said Viren. “Everybody loved playing around him, being around him.”

Steve Schreffler echoed the sentiment, saying Mudd was always a mentor: he played down to everyone else’s level, despite being an “amazing player.”  

Anger Management

McCalla was scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. court appearance Monday. The involuntary manslaughter charge he faces is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

He has some Wyoming criminal history, having had a 2020 misdemeanor property destruction charge deferred – or dismissed after some probation and restitution.

He was charged with domestic battery in early 2021 and was sentenced to probation and anger management for the offense, according to his court file.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.