Background: The Uinta County District Court in Evanston, Wyo. (Google Maps). Inset: Ethan Grasse (Uinta County Sheriff’s Office).
A Wyoming man charged with killing his father tried to have his case dismissed, citing self-defense. The judge did not agree, but he may get another chance to convince a jury.
Ethan Grasse, 23, is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of his father, 49-year-old Michael Grasse, who was fatally shot in November 2025. According to reporting by local news outlet Cowboy State Daily, Ethan Grasse and his public defender presented the self-defense case in the Uinta County District Court on Tuesday. Ethan Grasse claimed that on the day before the shooting, his father was drinking heavily and making threats to physically harm him.
The younger man reportedly went as far as buying a locking doorknob for his bedroom door so his father could not come in without permission.
According to court documents obtained by Cowboy State Daily, Michael Grasse was “drinking heavily” on Nov. 21, 2025, when he told his son that he wanted to go out to get food. Ethan Grasse drove his father to a restaurant to pick up food and they both came back home. The son parked his car behind his father’s car so he would not be able to drive while in an intoxicated state.
Michael Grasse later went outside and started moving trash cans around so he could drive his car around his son’s. Ethan Grasse heard what he was doing and came outside to tell his father that he would call the police if he got behind the wheel. The father then “physically attacked” his son, and the fight ended after Michael Grasse’s mother intervened.
Police said Ethan Grasse left the home and went to a friend’s house to get away for a while and try to find another place to stay for the night. When he was unable to find another place, he went to Walmart and bought a locking doorknob for his bedroom. Ethan Grasse reportedly returned home to find his father passed out drunk on the couch.
According to the court documents, Ethan Grasse took his father’s keys and phone, then emptied several bottles of whiskey while his father was still unconscious. He changed the lock on his bedroom door then went to bed.
Police said that at around 10 p.m., Michael Grasse started banging on his son’s door, threatening to break it down and “kick [his] a—.” Ethan Grasse reportedly told his father that he would give back the keys and phone once he was sober. The older man, while continuing to make threats against his son, left to work out in his own room.
At 10:44 p.m., Ethan Grasse texted his grandmother from his bedroom, reportedly telling her, “He just woke up i can hear him threatening me throught [sic] the wall not to make you more sad but if he tries to break into my room i will defend myself love you yaya have a good night.”
Police said Ethan Grasse woke up again at 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2025, when he heard someone banging at his bedroom door. Without putting on his glasses, Ethan Grasse apparently retrieved the .22-caliber handgun he kept in his room as the door was being broken down. He then allegedly fired at least three shots through the door. When he heard his father let out a moan, Ethan Grasse put his glasses on and called 911.
Ethan Grasse wrote in court documents that since he could not see clearly without his glasses, he claimed that he “did not mean to kill any one just defend myself from an unknown intruder.”
Michael Grasse was brought to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:22 a.m.
After the defense presented the case for self-defense in court on Tuesday, Uinta County District Court Judge James Kaste was not convinced that the case should be dismissed on those grounds. In his ruling, however, Kaste said the defense could still argue that the shooting was self-defense at trial.
Ethan Grasse was charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody at the Uinta County Jail. His trial is scheduled to begin on May 12.
