Left inset: Javier Abeyta (Sweetwater County Detention Center). Right inset: Marissa Allen (Facebook). Background: The 1300 block of O’Henry Drive in Gillette, Wyo., where Javier Abeyta allegedly gunned down Marissa Allen on Oct. 9, 2025 (Google Maps).
A Wyoming man gunned down a woman who tried taking a pistol away from him after he began “acting crazy” with it, cops say.
Javier Abeyta, 43, had been “spiraling” throughout the day before he shot Marissa Allen in Gillette on the evening of Oct. 9, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Cowboy State Daily.
He was allegedly smoking methamphetamine while hanging out with Allen and several other people at a home in the 1300 block of O’Henry Drive before the shooting occurred, cops say.
Abeyta was in the garage of the residence when he opened fire on Allen after she attempted to take away a Hi-Point semiautomatic 9 mm pistol from him, according to the affidavit. Abeyta was allegedly pointing the weapon at Allen’s boyfriend, the Gillette News Record reports.
As this went on, Allen noticed that Abeyta allegedly had a “blank stare on his face” before he tried to shoot Allen’s boyfriend in the back of the head, but the gun didn’t go off, per cops. That’s when he allegedly targeted Allen.
“I shot her,” Abeyta told a witness at the home who ran outside to see what happened after hearing the gunfire, according to the affidavit.
“I killed her,” he allegedly said. “Get out of my way or I will shoot you too.”
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Abeyta’s sister later told police that he had been acting very paranoid leading up to the shooting and was taken to a local hospital earlier in the day by her because she thought he was dehydrated from drinking alcohol.
People at the home with Abeyta allegedly said he believed the group was trying to kill him. Abeyta can be heard on surveillance video obtained from a nearby residence yelling as kids in the neighborhood ride bikes out front, according to the affidavit. A parent told the children to go inside right as the gunfire rang out, the Record reports.
Police allegedly recovered a bullet in the drywall of the garage and a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun that was linked to Abeyta. Allen was rushed to a local hospital after the shooting and then airlifted to a medical center in Colorado, where she was declared brain dead, per reports.
Local court officials told Law&Crime on Wednesday that Abeyta has a lengthy criminal record, with multiple arrests in the past for various crimes. He was being held on a $1 million bond for attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault, but prosecutors expect the charges to be upgraded on account of Allen’s condition.
“This will probably get upgraded to an actual murder,” said a Campbell County prosecutor during Abeyta’s bond hearing on Tuesday, according to the Record.
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