On September 28, 2019, a domestic disturbance call in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, led deputies to the home of Errol Hicks on McLin Road after multiple rounds had been fired. Carol Hutchinson, a local daycare owner, had gone to Hicks’s residence to retrieve the last of her belongings following the end of an approximately six-year relationship.

Hutchinson sought help at nearby homes before collapsing inside the Smiths’ house. Deputies found her body at the scene and arrested Hicks, who was present and armed with a .380-caliber pistol. He later told authorities he had shot Hutchinson after she pulled a gun on him. A jury later convicted 70-year-old Errol Hicks of second-degree murder; the conviction carries a mandatory life sentence without parole.