BILLINGS — A 31-year-old Billings man caught on camera shooting and killing another man in an August 2022 road-rage incident in downtown Billings now faces a criminal charge of deliberate homicide.
Yellowstone County prosecutors filed the formal charge Wednesday against Jacob Dylan Troxel in Yellowstone County District Court, according to documents obtained by MTN News.
The filing comes less than a month after a coroner's inquest jury found that Troxel should face criminal charges after he shot and killed 29-year-old Michael Duran on Fourth Avenue North at the intersection of North 32nd Street.
Troxel had argued that he was acting in self-defense when he shot Duran seven times through a car window. The incident was captured by Q2 surveillance cameras from across the street.
According to charging documents filed by Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito, Troxel told police that he first stopped his vehicle at the intersection because he and his girlfriend, who was a passenger, thought Duran was following him, and he planned to ask why.
He told police Duran struck him several times before he fired his gun, although surveillance video did not back up that claim.
The video showed Troxel and his girlfriend stopping at the intersection in his Toyota Camry, then getting out of his vehicle to confront Duran in his Subaru. Duran eventually exited his vehicle, and video showed Troxel hitting him several times outside, Twito wrote in charging documents.
The two continued to spar, with Troxel at one point swinging an orange traffic cone at Duran, according to court documents. Troxel eventually got back in his car, and Duran headed back to his, but he stopped and approached Troxel's vehicle and punched toward him in the vehicle. That's when the video shows an item pulled from the back seat, and Duran falls backward after he was shot.
Duran later died at a hospital.
Troxel has not been booked into jail. A court date has not been set.
