Investigators said evidence inside the Highland Township home did not support Michael Webb’s claim that Rachel Wooten’s shooting was accidental.
PONTIAC, Mich. — The first account authorities received of Rachel Wooten’s fatal shooting came from the man who would later be convicted of murdering her: Michael Webb called 911, said he had shot his fiancée and himself, and described what happened as an accident.
That explanation became one of the central points investigators and prosecutors challenged during the case that followed. Webb said he had been cleaning his gun. Deputies instead found a scene that authorities said did not support an accidental discharge. Wooten, 23, had been shot in the neck at very close range and died at the Highland Township home on April 15, 2025. Webb had a nonfatal gunshot wound that investigators said apparently came from the same bullet. On July 16, 2026, an Oakland County jury convicted him of first-degree murder and felony firearm.
The contrast between Webb’s initial statement and the eventual verdict traces the case from emergency response through criminal investigation and trial. When Oakland County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the residence, they found Webb and Wooten inside. The couple’s 6-month-old child was there as well and was unharmed. Wooten was pronounced dead at the scene. Webb was taken into custody without incident, according to the account released when charges were filed. What might have remained an accidental-shooting explanation instead became a homicide investigation as deputies examined the physical evidence and Webb’s statements.
Authorities have not published a complete forensic report or trial transcript explaining every fact that contradicted Webb’s version. The prosecutor’s office has publicly stated that the evidence did not support the claim that he was cleaning the weapon when it fired. Officials also described the gunshot to Wooten as occurring at very close range and said Webb’s wound apparently resulted from the same bullet. Those details were enough for investigators to move away from the accident narrative, but the public record reviewed for this report does not establish every technical step by which detectives reconstructed the shooting.
By April 18, 2025, Webb had been charged with first-degree murder and felony firearm and arraigned in 52-1 District Court in Novi. Prosecutors characterized Wooten’s death as an apparent domestic violence killing while the criminal charges were still allegations. That distinction was important. Investigators’ rejection of an accidental-shooting explanation did not itself establish murder in court. Prosecutors still had to prove the charged crimes, and Webb retained the presumption of innocence throughout the pretrial proceedings and trial.
The prosecution later added another piece of evidence that focused attention on the hours before the shooting rather than the account Webb gave afterward. At trial, jurors heard that Wooten had texted a family member on April 15 saying she was afraid for her life. The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office has not publicly released the full conversation or identified the relative in the material reviewed for this report. It has not said precisely what prompted Wooten’s message. The verified point is that the communication was presented to the jury and placed her expression of fear on the same day as the fatal shooting.
That timing created a significant evidentiary contrast for jurors. Webb’s account came after Wooten had been shot and after he had also been wounded. Wooten’s message was sent before the shooting and communicated fear to someone else. The public record does not reveal how jurors individually weighed the text, the physical evidence and Webb’s statements, and jury deliberations are not explained by the verdict itself. The result, however, is unambiguous: Jurors returned guilty verdicts on first-degree murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Shellbe Sanborn and Allison Krueger tried the case. Afterward, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald said Webb had killed Wooten, called 911 and lied about what happened. That statement was made after conviction, when prosecutors were no longer speaking merely about an accused defendant. McDonald also pointed to the child who was inside the home, saying the verdict could hold Webb accountable but could not restore Wooten or change what her child had lost.
The first-degree murder finding is especially important because it means the jury did more than conclude that Webb caused Wooten’s death. Michigan’s first-degree murder statute includes a willful, deliberate and premeditated killing and requires life imprisonment without eligibility for parole for an adult conviction. The verdict therefore represents the jury’s rejection of an accident account at the highest level of homicide charged in the case. Public summaries of the trial do not provide the jury instructions, closing arguments or a count-by-count explanation of the prosecution’s theory, so those details should not be inferred beyond the conviction itself.
The felony-firearm conviction adds a separate statutory penalty. Michigan law makes it a felony to carry or possess a firearm while committing or attempting to commit another felony, subject to specified exceptions. A first conviction under that statute carries two years in prison, and the law directs that the firearm term be served consecutively and before the sentence for the underlying felony. Webb’s first-degree murder sentence itself is dictated by the separate murder statute. The available public information does not report a prior felony-firearm conviction for Webb.
The transformation of the case from reported accident to murder conviction occurred over roughly 15 months. Wooten died on April 15, 2025. Webb was arraigned three days later. The prosecutor’s charging announcement followed and said evidence contradicted the accidental-shooting account. The case then proceeded through the court system until the July 2026 trial, where jurors heard evidence not included in the earliest public reports, including Wooten’s same-day text. The jury convicted Webb on July 16, and the prosecutor publicly announced the verdict the following day.
The timeline also illustrates why early descriptions of violent deaths can change as evidence is developed. A 911 caller can provide investigators with a starting account, but that account does not determine the legal classification of a death. Detectives examine the scene, physical evidence, injuries, witness information and other available records. Prosecutors later decide whether the evidence supports criminal charges, while jurors decide at trial whether those charges have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. In Webb’s case, the original description of an accidental discharge did not survive that process.
At the same time, the limited public record does not justify filling in details that investigators and trial participants have not released. It is not publicly established in the materials reviewed here what Webb and Wooten were doing immediately before the shooting, what specific actions investigators concluded occurred in the moments before the gun fired, or what caused Webb’s wound beyond the official statement that it apparently came from the same bullet. The record also does not include the complete wording of Wooten’s message or a full history of the couple’s relationship.
Those unknowns do not change the case’s present legal status. Webb has been found guilty by a jury, not merely charged or accused. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 7 in Sixth Circuit Court, where the judge is expected to formally enter the consequences required by the convictions. No specific appeal or post-verdict motion was identified in the public material reviewed as of Aug. 24.
The account Webb offered in the first hours of the investigation — that the gun fired while he was cleaning it — therefore stands in a very different position than it did on April 15, 2025. Investigators said the evidence contradicted it, prosecutors put that conflict before a jury, and jurors convicted Webb of deliberately murdering Wooten. The next stage is no longer determining whether her death was a crime, but formally sentencing the man the jury found responsible for it.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 24, 2026.