Police Recommend Murder Charge In Casper Shooting, DA Says Not Enough Evidence

CASPER — The Natrona County District Attorney’s Office won’t prosecute a 74-year-old Casper man who shot and killed the 47-year-old boyfriend of his daughter March 8 on the south side of Casper.

The decision follows a nearly four-month investigation by the Casper Police Department which, in an affidavit released Wednesday, had initially asked for second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges against Clarence Lee Daniels in the death of Jeremiah Reyes.

Information released Wednesday by the District Attorney’s Office showsthat Reyes died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Police were initially called to the 800 block of 53rd Street in Casper at about 5:45 p.m. on March 8 by Daniels’ wife, who told the dispatcher that her husband was headed to the home and “took things to kill someone.” She then corrected herself to say that he had taken guns with him.

The arrest affidavit showed that on the morning of March 8, Daniels had a phone conversation with his daughter and had asked her if she and Reyes had been drinking, and if “Reyes had been hitting her again.”

He heard her cry on the phone.

The daughter told police that she and Reyes had been drinking vodka that morning.

Daniels then drove to the 53rd Street address, which he owned and was selling to his daughter.

In a decision letter written by Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson, Nelson quoted Daniels’ comment made to his wife about going to the home to “straighten this shit out.”

‘He Needs To Leave Her The Hell Alone’

“Ya know, he needs to leave her the hell alone,” the affidavit states. “I don’t want her to end up in the hospital again.”

The affidavit states he took a .44 magnum pistol with six cylinders with him to the home. The pistol was found on a breakfast bar after the shooting.

Reyes had spent time in prison for beating Daniel’s daughter in 2016. The daughter had resumed her relationship with him after his prison time.

Once in the home, the affidavit describes a confrontation between Reyes and Daniels that became a physical struggle that moved into the bedroom of the home and led to Reyes being shot.

Daniels told police that he took the pistol into the home to “scare” Reyes, and once in the home told him to leave his daughter alone “or get the hell away from her.”

Daniels told police that Reyes grabbed his pistol and his arm. Daniels said he then also grabbed the barrel of the gun, and he had one hand on Reyes’ arm and one on the barrel of the gun.

He said he and Reyes were “wrestling around” when the handgun “went off” and Reyes fell to the floor.

Daniels’ daughter told police that when Reyes learned she was talking to her father that morning, he yelled at her for trying to “make him look bad in front of her family,” the affidavit states.

She told police Reyes grabbed her by the throat, and she broke free of him and then he pushed her to the ground and pulled her up by her hair, pulled her ears and hit her “upside the head.”

When her father arrived at the house and came through the door, she said Reyes told her father  “who the f*** are you, to think you can come in my house whenever you want and bring a gun.”

Previous Incident

Information in the affidavit also showed a previous incident between Daniels and Reyes on July 7, 2024, in which Daniels had confronted Reyes and put a gun to Reyes’ head before firing the shot into the floor at his feet in a bathroom while Reyes was on the toilet.

A phone message uncovered during the investigation from Daniels to his daughter stated that he was sorry for putting a hole in the bathroom floor, the affidavit states.

“Going to get rid of the pistols before I do something I can’t fix,” the affidavit states Daniels said. “I love you so much I go crazy with rage.”

The Casper Police Department investigator cited that incident as part of the “probable cause” that Daniels “maliciously killed Reyes on March 8.”

Nelson wrote in the seven-page decision letter that the evidence presented in the case was not conclusive to bring charges.

“The state is not persuaded by the evidence presented that Mr. Daniels meets the elements of homicide in second-degree,” he wrote. “Specifically, the elements of murder in the second degree require that the accused both purposefully and maliciously kill another and was not acting upon a sudden heat of passion.”

Nelson wrote that the evidence of Daniels being “overcome by a sudden heat of passion is compelling and persuasive.”

‘Pattern’ Of Abuse

Reyes after his prison sentence continued his “pattern of verbal abuse and physical abuse” of his partner — Daniels’ daughter, Nelson noted.

He also wrote that all three people, including Daniels, showed blood evidence of being intoxicated that day.

The chief deputy district attorney’s letter also states that Daniels had a “genuine belief that his daughter was being hurt again.”

In the struggle described as “wrasslin’ around,” Nelson noted that the incident went from the couch to the hallway, and then into the bedroom.

He wrote that Daniels described that he lost control of the gun and had demonstrated that to a detective during an interview. Daniels also told police that he did not pull the trigger, but that the gun went off during the struggle.

“This description states that the discharge of the pistol was not a knowing, willful, or voluntary act of Mr. Daniels but a struggle for continued control of the gun, a gun which is now held by Mr. Reyes,” Nelson wrote.

Nelson wrote that information provided by Daniels’ daughter that her father’s reaction to Reyes’ going down by stating “No, no, wake up Jeremy,” revealed Daniels was not intentionally trying to shoot Reyes.

Nelson concluded that the struggle for the gun, and Daniels’ reluctance to cede control of it, was reasonable given Reyes previous violent history, “his large size and commensurate strength and his intoxicated state.”

“Noting these factors the State does not find that manslaughter or criminal negligent homicide are appropriate,” he wrote. “As self defense or its variation of defense (of) others would provide a complete defense to the killing of Mr. Reyes.”

Nelson’s conclusions were signed off by District Attorney Dan Itzen.

A member of the Reyes’ family contacted by Cowboy State Daily said the family was reluctant to comment on the district attorney’s decision but might provide a statement. That statement was not provided by deadline.

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.