On April 13, 2015, what began as an ordinary evening on a rural property outside Worland, Wyoming, spiraled into a confrontation that ended in the death of Jamye Don SoRelle, a 58-year-old White male. Accounts later aired in court and reported locally describe a shared living arrangement on SoRelle's property, with multiple trailers clustered around a common parking area and a single way in and out.
That night, a friend who had been visiting nearby realized she could not leave because a Suburban and trailer were positioned to block the driveway, touching off an argument that quickly turned personal and volatile.
As the dispute escalated, investigators and court records described a tense exchange: attempts to contact SoRelle, first at his door and then by phone, led to an angry explanation that he believed the visitor's car had been parked where he usually parked, and that blocking the exit was his response. When the parties went back outside, reports and testimony portrayed SoRelle approaching with a revolver in hand; in the chaos, the revolver discharged near the women, sending gravel flying. The other man, Anthony Haire, then retrieved a. 40-caliber handgun. Not long after, believing SoRelle was in or near the vehicle blocking the driveway, Haire approached and opened fire; reporting on the probable-cause narrative said twelve rounds were fired and eight struck SoRelle, leaving him mortally wounded.
Law enforcement arrested Anthony David Haire in the aftermath, and prosecutors filed charges including manslaughter and reckless endangerment tied to the shooting and to rounds that traveled in the direction of a nearby highway. The case moved through Washakie County's Fifth Judicial District Court, where a jury ultimately found Haire guilty in December 2015. In May 2016, a judge sentenced him to eight to ten years in prison for manslaughter, with additional punishment for reckless endangerment; in court, SoRelle's daughter described the sudden violence of losing her father and the lasting damage it did to her family.
But the legal story did not end with the sentence. On appeal, Haire argued that the jury had been improperly instructed on self-defense—particularly on whether he had a duty to retreat before using deadly force. In May 2017, the Wyoming Supreme Court reversed the convictions and sent the case back for a new trial, concluding that an error in the self-defense instructions rose to the level of plain error, even while rejecting a separate argument that he was entitled to a “castle doctrine” instruction on those facts. Subsequent local reporting indicated the case was positioned for retrial proceedings after the reversal, though accessible public reporting reviewed here does not clearly document a final retrial verdict or later resolution.
