Court records describe shell casings, blood evidence and a pistol recovered after Alan Graham’s death.
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Investigators say physical evidence from a Ridgeway Drive home undercuts a woman’s claim that she shot her husband in self-defense during an April 12 confrontation that left him dead in a basement hallway.
The case against Andrea Graham, 31, centers less on whether she fired the gun and more on what was happening when she did. Police say Alan Graham, also 31, was found dead inside the home after a 911 call shortly before 4:30 p.m. Graham told authorities that her husband tried to kill her, according to local reports on probable cause documents. Investigators say the scene told a different story.
The most detailed account released so far comes from court records described by local reporters. Officers found a Springfield Hellcat 9 mm pistol on the basement stairs. They also found three spent shell casings in separate areas, two in a laundry room and one roughly 10 feet away in an adjacent room. Alan Graham was found in the basement hallway. Investigators said glass from a broken picture frame was on his body, and they used that detail along with shell casing locations and blood spatter to study the sequence of shots.
Police said those details matter because Andrea Graham claimed Alan Graham was strangling her when she fired. Investigators said they did not see visible injuries on her that matched that account. They also said her clothes did not have blood on them. According to the documents described in local coverage, the evidence suggested Alan Graham was about 10 feet away from his wife when the first shot was fired. Investigators also said additional shots were fired after he had fallen to the ground.
Andrea Graham’s alleged words to police became another key part of the case. When officers reached the home, she told them she had shot him “a couple of times” and wanted to make sure “he was out of his misery,” according to reports summarizing the probable cause file. Police say she also told 911 dispatchers that her husband had tried to kill her and that she did not think he was alive. The statement placed both claims before investigators at the start: a self-defense account and a description of repeated shots after he was wounded.
The initial police release did not name either person, but it laid out the emergency response. Battle Creek officers were called to the 100 block of South Ridgeway Drive around 4:30 p.m. for a shooting victim. A 31-year-old woman was outside and directed officers into the home. Officers found a 31-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the upper torso. LifeCare Ambulance workers attempted lifesaving measures, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Police then took the woman into custody and lodged her at the Calhoun County Jail.
Prosecutors later identified the woman as Andrea Graham and the man as Alan Graham. Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert said she was charged in her husband’s death. Local court coverage described the murder count as first-degree murder, while other reporting referred to open murder, a charging form used in Michigan that can leave the degree of murder to be decided as the case advances. She also faces a firearm count tied to possession or use of a pistol during the alleged felony.
Graham appeared in Calhoun County Court on April 15 and pleaded not guilty. She did not comment on the shooting during the hearing. Her attorney told the court she was a stay-at-home mother with two children and had no past felony convictions, though he said she had two misdemeanors. The judge denied bond. That decision kept Graham in jail while prosecutors and defense counsel prepared for the next hearings, including a probable cause conference and a preliminary examination listed in local court reports.
The legal fight ahead is likely to focus on the meaning of the home’s physical evidence. Prosecutors can point to the distance between the first shot and the victim, the lack of injuries they say would support strangulation, and the allegation that more shots were fired after Alan Graham was down. The defense can be expected to press the self-defense claim Graham made at the beginning of the case. No public filing has fully explained whether the defense will challenge the blood spatter analysis, the interpretation of shell casing locations or the officers’ account of Graham’s condition.
The public record also leaves gaps. Police have not said whether anyone else was inside the home at the time of the shooting. They have not released the full 911 recording, the autopsy findings or a complete forensic report. It is also not clear from available reports whether there had been prior police calls to the home. The known evidence is limited to the emergency response, Graham’s alleged statements, the items recovered inside and the conclusions investigators wrote into the probable cause record.
For Battle Creek police, the case began as a report of a shooting victim and quickly became a homicide investigation inside a private home. For the court, it is now a test of probable cause and intent. The charge exposes Graham to the most serious penalties available in Michigan if prosecutors prove the murder allegation. The firearm count adds a separate legal risk, because prosecutors say she possessed and used a pistol during the commission of the felony.
As of the latest reports, Andrea Graham remained jailed without bond after pleading not guilty. The case’s next public steps were tied to court hearings scheduled after the arraignment, where a judge would review whether prosecutors had enough evidence to send the murder and firearm counts toward trial.
Author note: Last updated May 7, 2026.