Parking space dispute turned deadly: Man’s self-defense claim doesn’t stand up in court

A Wyoming man facing years in prison after a fatal roadside fight saw his appeal rejected by the state’s Supreme Court.

Cody McCalla, now 35, had argued he was acting in self-defense and thus immune from prosecution in the July 2024 fistfight that led to the death of Patrick Mudd, 48. The conflict arose from a dispute over a parking space outside the rodeo grounds in Sheridan, Wyo.

The Wyoming Supreme Court’s Feb. 5 ruling concluded that a lower court had not erred in its handling of the case, including its finding that McCalla was the initial aggressor in the fatal altercation.

McCalla was sentenced in April 2025 to 4 to 6 years in prison under a deal in which he pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter. He had reserved the right, however, to try again to get the case dismissed on self-defense grounds.

The case was complicated by the serial nature of the altercation, in which McCalla, after being knocked down and bloodied, “continued to reengage,” in the words of the district court. Because of that, the lower court contended, he could not claim self-defense.

The dispute began when two vehicles — one going forward, the other backing up — attempted to pull into the same curbside parking space, the court document said. They “collided or nearly collided,” and Mudd got out of the car driven by his girlfriend and began yelling at McCalla. McCalla and his friend ceded the space and found another about 100 feet away.

As they walked toward the rodeo, they had to pass Mudd — who had remained near the parked car because his girlfriend worried that McCalla and his friend might vandalize it. McCalla “initiated a verbal exchange,” which turned into a physical altercation; witnesses were unclear on who made first contact, and McCalla contended they grabbed each other at the same time.

In the ensuing fight, Mudd knocked him to the ground “multiple times.” When McCalla’s friend appealed to Mudd to stop, the older man walked away. But McCalla then got up, pursued Mudd and punched him.

Mudd fell and hit his head on the pavement. He died after being airlifted to a hospital in Billings, Mont.

The district court found that, even if Mudd could be considered the initial aggressor at the beginning of the encounter, the fact that he walked away means McCalla could not claim self-defense.

The higher court backed it on that issue, and also denied McCalla’s appeal on procedural matters concerning the evidentiary hearing.