Carol Jean Smallwood was 67. On August 4, 2015, she was found dead in a burning home in New Market, Alabama, along with her daughter Kristin Smallwood, her 8-year-old grandson Clayton Chambers, her 1-year-old nephew Eli Sokolowski, and Kristin's unborn child. Investigators found the victims had been shot and stabbed before the fire was set to destroy evidence.

Kristin had gone to court just a week earlier to keep her estranged husband, Christopher Henderson, away from the house. Henderson had married another woman, Rhonda Carlson, without divorcing Kristin. Carlson testified at trial that she helped plan the killings, under a deal that took the death penalty off the table for her.

In July 2021 a jury convicted Henderson and voted 11-1 for death, and in October 2021 a Madison County judge sentenced him to death. Five people, from a 67-year-old grandmother to an unborn baby, died in that house. Did the protective order process fail Kristin, or was there no stopping someone this determined?