Police say Andrea Graham claimed self-defense after Alan Graham was found dead in a Ridgeway Drive home.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — A 31-year-old Battle Creek woman is charged in the shooting death of her husband after police found him wounded inside their Ridgeway Drive home on April 12 and later said her account did not match evidence at the scene.

Andrea Graham faces a murder charge and a firearm charge in the death of Alan Graham, 31. The case moved quickly from a Sunday afternoon emergency call to a Calhoun County courtroom, where Graham pleaded not guilty. Police say the shooting happened inside the couple’s home, where officers found Alan Graham with wounds to his upper torso and emergency crews were unable to save him.

The first public account came from Battle Creek police, who said officers were sent to the 100 block of South Ridgeway Drive around 4:30 p.m. April 12 for a report of a shooting victim. A woman was outside the home when officers arrived and directed them inside. Police said officers found a 31-year-old man in the residence with apparent gunshot wounds. LifeCare Ambulance workers tried lifesaving measures at the scene, but Alan Graham was pronounced dead there. The woman, later identified in court coverage as Andrea Graham, was taken into custody as the investigation continued.

Investigators later described a more detailed scene inside the home. Court records cited in local reporting said Alan Graham was found in a basement hallway. Officers also found a Springfield Hellcat 9 mm pistol on the basement stairs. Three spent shell casings were recovered, with two in a laundry room and one about 10 feet away in a nearby room. Investigators also noted glass from a shattered picture frame on Alan Graham’s body, a detail they said helped them examine movement through the home and the positions of the people involved before and after the first shot.

Andrea Graham told authorities she had acted during a violent encounter, according to accounts of probable cause documents. She said her husband had tried to kill her and that she was defending herself. Police said she told responding officers she shot him “a couple of times” and wanted to make sure “he was out of his misery.” Investigators said they did not see injuries on her body that were consistent with strangulation. They also noted that her clothing did not have blood on it, a detail cited as part of the reason police questioned whether the shooting happened as she described.

The evidence cited by investigators is now central to the case. Blood spatter analysis, the placement of shell casings and the broken glass led investigators to conclude that Alan Graham was about 10 feet from Andrea Graham when he was first shot, according to the probable cause account. Investigators also said more shots were fired after he was on the ground. That finding is one of the sharpest breaks between the defense claim and the prosecution theory. Police said the available evidence did not support her claim that Alan Graham was strangling her at the moment she fired.

The charge has been described in local court coverage as first-degree murder, while other court reporting said prosecutors brought an open murder count along with a firearm offense. In Michigan, an open murder charge allows a court process to determine the degree of murder as the case develops. Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert identified Andrea Graham as the person charged in her husband’s death. At her April 15 arraignment, Graham entered a not guilty plea. The court denied bond, leaving her in custody while the case moved to probable cause and preliminary examination stages.

Graham did not speak publicly about the allegations during her first court appearance. Her attorney described her as a stay-at-home mother of two and said she had no prior felony convictions. The attorney also said she had two misdemeanors on her record. Those details came as the court weighed the seriousness of the allegations, the firearm count and the claim that the shooting happened during a domestic confrontation. The public record did not show a full defense filing laying out her account in detail beyond the self-defense claim described in police and court documents.

Police have released few details about what may have happened before the 911 call. The official statement said the case remained under investigation and that no further interviews would be given at that time. The known timeline begins with the emergency call just before 4:30 p.m., moves to the arrival of officers and ambulance workers, and ends that day with Andrea Graham in custody at the Calhoun County Jail. What remains unclear is how long the encounter lasted, what happened earlier inside the house and whether any other witnesses heard or saw part of the incident.

The home’s location put the case in a residential part of Battle Creek, a city in Calhoun County about 120 miles west of Detroit. Police did not describe an ongoing threat to the public after the arrest. The shooting drew attention because the first police statement gave only the basic outline of a fatal call, while later court documents added the disputed self-defense claim and the alleged statement about ending suffering. Those details changed the public understanding of the case from a brief homicide notice to a contested account of what happened inside the home.

Graham remained held without bond after pleading not guilty. Court records cited by local media listed an April 22 probable cause conference and an April 29 preliminary examination as the next steps. Those hearings are meant to test whether prosecutors have enough evidence to move the case forward. Investigators have focused on the gun, shell casings, blood evidence, the broken picture frame and Graham’s statements to police as they build the record.

Author note: Last updated May 7, 2026.