Timothy Michael Morris, a 26-year-old White man, was killed during a violent confrontation at a Cross Lanes, West Virginia, home on July 3, 2014. The shooting occurred after Dustin Wayne Bodkins went to the residence of his former fiancée, Lindsey Winans; Bodkins told investigators he had returned to retrieve medication. According to the criminal complaint, Bodkins found Morris hiding in a closet, a physical struggle ensued, and Morris was shot. Winans later told police that Bodkins kicked Morris while he lay wounded and bleeding and that Bodkins pointed a firearm at her and threatened to shoot or kill her.

Bodkins reportedly barricaded himself in a bedroom armed with a gun; the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department and its SWAT team responded and took him into custody before 4 a.m. He was charged in Kanawha County Circuit Court with first-degree murder and wanton endangerment and pleaded not guilty at an October 2014 appearance. In December 2015 Bodkins pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under a plea agreement; the wanton endangerment charge was dismissed and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.