On a Sunday morning in March 2011, 43-year-old Edward Charles Gurtner III was working as manager at the Carquest auto parts store on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge when a robbery turned deadly. Gurtner and his co-worker, 54-year-old Randy Leo Chaney, were found shot to death in a back room later that day after one of the victims’ wives arrived at the store. Investigators determined cash had been taken from the building, and evidence pointed to an inside connection.

A 21-year-old Carquest employee, Lee Turner Jr., was arrested at another Carquest location after failing to show for a scheduled shift and, within hours, confessed. He said he had not intended to kill anyone but was provoked when an employee used a racial slur. Turner was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery, convicted by a jury, and the jury unanimously recommended death for both murders. On direct appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 2018 the convictions were affirmed but the death sentences were vacated because of an error in jury selection; the case was returned for a new penalty phase.