A September day in 2013 ended in violence on Renegade Mountain, Tennessee, when 22-year-old Rikki Danielle Jacobsen was found shot to death in the driver’s seat of her car. Three teenage boys in the vehicle — 17-year-old Steven Presley, 17-year-old Domonic Lewis Davis, and 16-year-old Jonathan R. Lajeunesse — were also shot and killed. Jacobsen was a mother to a young son.

Investigators quickly identified suspects and arrested Jacob Allen Bennett and his girlfriend Brittany Moser. Authorities say the killings grew out of a drug-related robbery: Bennett and Moser allegedly planned to steal marijuana from Jacobsen and Davis, and Bennett was said to have known Jacobsen previously. A grand jury later indicted both on multiple counts, including felony murder and attempted aggravated robbery; Bennett was additionally charged with premeditated murder and prosecutors said they intended to seek the death penalty. At his first court appearance Bennett asked to plead guilty without counsel, a request the judge rejected so his constitutional rights would be protected.