Court records trace a night of drinking, an insulting text and an unplanned confrontation that left Jason Greene dead and Drake Ingalls charged.
NEWCASTLE, Wyo. — Drake Ingalls drove from South Dakota to northeastern Wyoming to meet a woman he had known only online. By shortly before 5 a.m. the next morning, another man was dead inside a Newcastle home, and the first date had become a second-degree murder investigation.
The hours between those events are laid out in a probable cause affidavit that traces the encounter from Ingalls’ arrival in Newcastle to the shooting of Jason Greene. The documents show that many parts of the night’s timeline are broadly agreed upon: Ingalls and the woman met in person, drank alcohol, she received an insulting message from Greene, she asked Ingalls to drive her to Greene’s residence, an argument followed and Ingalls fired one shot. But on the most important point — what was happening at the doorway immediately before the shot — the two surviving witnesses gave investigators substantially different accounts.
Ingalls, of Belle Fourche, had met the woman through Tinder. Investigators were given differing estimates of how long the two had been communicating, ranging from several weeks to a few months, but Aug. 8 was their first in-person meeting. Court records say Ingalls drove roughly 90 miles to Newcastle. He and the woman spent portions of the night driving around town and drinking and also visited a local bar. Their meeting had not begun as a confrontation with Greene, and the available affidavit does not indicate that Ingalls had known Greene before that night.
The direction of the evening changed after the woman received a message from Greene. She described Greene as a former casual partner, according to local reporting based on the affidavit. The message contained a derogatory term directed at her. Upset by it, she talked with Ingalls about Greene and told him Greene had abused or mistreated her in the past. The court record says she then asked Ingalls to take her to Greene’s residence so she could speak with him. She also told Ingalls that if he heard her yell for help, he should come to assist her.
Greene was not expecting them, according to the affidavit. After they arrived, the woman entered or approached the home while Ingalls initially stayed away. A heated verbal argument began. The woman was yelling loudly enough for Ingalls to hear from outside. Up to that point, the affidavit’s description does not depend on one person’s account alone: both the decision to visit Greene and the argument are part of the investigative chronology. The stories separate when Ingalls left the area near his car and moved toward the home after hearing the woman call for help.
Ingalls told investigators that he first went to his vehicle and retrieved a 9 mm Glock Model 17. He chambered a hollow-point round and approached the side entrance. Coming around a shed, he said, he saw Greene behind the woman near the doorway. Ingalls described Greene as having his arms under the woman’s armpits, with another hand near the back of her head or hair. He said he believed Greene was pulling her toward the interior of the residence. According to the affidavit, Ingalls tried to open the door, pointed the handgun toward Greene and ordered him to let the woman go.
In Ingalls’ account, Greene did not release her. Ingalls said the woman was between the two men and that only Greene’s chest was visible to him. He fired one round, telling investigators he believed it struck Greene in the middle of the chest from a distance of about 10 to 12 feet. Greene went backward into the residence and fell. Investigators later recovered a 9 mm shell casing outside the home several feet from the side entrance. Police found Greene on the floor between the hallway and living room, where emergency medical personnel confirmed his death.
The woman did not support Ingalls’ description of a physical struggle. She told investigators that Greene had not assaulted her and that they were not involved in a physical altercation, according to the affidavit. She also said she did not actually see the shooting itself. Her statement included a direct rejection of the need for gunfire, telling investigators that Ingalls did not need to fire. The interviewing agent reported an abrasion on her knee but did not document other visible injuries, bruises or indications that her hair had been pulled.
Her recollection came with an additional complication. Court documents say she acknowledged consuming several alcoholic drinks and described herself as highly intoxicated. She told investigators she may have blacked out during portions of the night. Officers who arrived at the scene also reported signs that both she and Ingalls had consumed alcohol. Those facts are part of the investigative record, but they do not by themselves establish which account of the doorway confrontation is accurate. Questions about perception, memory and credibility would be matters for the legal process rather than assumptions to be resolved from the affidavit alone.
After the shot, Ingalls and the woman entered his car and drove around the block before returning, according to the court record. The woman called 911. Newcastle officers arrived at about 4:54 a.m. and encountered the pair outside. The woman appeared frantic. Ingalls, according to the affidavit, quickly told an officer that he had shot someone in the chest and said the firearm was in his vehicle. Officers detained him, entered the residence and located Greene. Police recovered the Glock from the center console area of Ingalls’ red Toyota Camry.
The Newcastle Police Department requested assistance from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, and Special Agent Zack Miller took part in the investigation. The state inquiry included interviews and examination of physical and digital evidence. Ingalls was arrested later Aug. 9, and prosecutors filed a second-degree murder charge. A judge set his bond at $250,000 cash only. Conditions for any release included GPS monitoring and prohibitions on alcohol, firearms, contact with the woman and unauthorized travel outside specified areas.
By the preliminary hearing, the defense had begun framing the case around Ingalls’ claim that he was protecting another person. Attorney David Holmes said Ingalls intended to plead not guilty and expected to rely on a defense-of-another theory. Holmes said Ingalls had no previous relationship with Greene and argued that his client responded after hearing the woman call for help. The prosecution’s charge, however, remained second-degree murder, and the court found enough evidence at the preliminary stage to bind the case over to Weston County District Court. A preliminary hearing determines whether a case may move forward; it is not a determination of guilt.
Wyoming’s second-degree murder statute covers a killing committed purposely and maliciously but without premeditation. The offense carries a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and can be punished by life imprisonment if there is a conviction. Ingalls is presumed innocent. Whether his claimed belief that the woman was in danger legally justified the shooting, and how jurors or a judge might assess the woman’s contrary statement, remain unresolved questions for the court process.
The sequence began with an online introduction and ended with a single discharged round, but the criminal case is now focused on the narrow interval just before that shot. The available records establish where the participants went and what happened afterward more clearly than they establish what Greene was doing at the doorway. Ingalls has been bound over to District Court, and the latest verified reporting reviewed here does not show that the charge has reached a final resolution.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 22, 2026.