William James ’Will’ Carter Jr. was 30 when he was shot to death inside a house on Clifton Road off Flat Shoals Road in southeast Atlanta on September 13, 2013. Born in Phoenix in 1982, he later lived in Orlando and the Atlanta area and ran Georgia Select Insurance Co. as its president and CEO; he was also the father of an eight-year-old daughter.

In the early morning of the killing Carter was at the home of his ex-fiancée, 31-year-old Victoria Rickman. Police records and later trial testimony say Rickman called 911 and reported she had shot Carter during an attempted rape. Officers found Carter struck at least ten times, most wounds in his back, inside the bedroom. Prosecutors emphasized the pattern of gunfire and physical-evidence findings as inconsistent with self-defense; defense attorneys said Rickman feared Carter because of prior domestic violence. Within hours Rickman was arrested and charged with murder.

What details from that night or from Carter’s life might help explain how events escalated so quickly?