A dispute over an air mattress in Stafford, Virginia, ended with the death of 35-year-old William Conner Jr. on the evening of January 19, 2014. Conner had gone to return the mattress for his nephew, Mark Howsare, but the store required Howsare be present. Later that night Conner and his girlfriend were locked out of Howsare’s Belle Plains Road residence. An argument through the closed door escalated after Howsare, who had been drinking, threatened to shoot his nephew and said he had a loaded gun.

Shortly after, the door opened and three to five gunshots were heard. Conner’s girlfriend saw Howsare in the doorway with a handgun. Conner staggered off the porch and collapsed in the yard; deputies arrived around 10:18 p.m. and found him deceased. An autopsy confirmed a gunshot wound to the shoulder that passed through the lungs and heart as the cause of death. Officers established a perimeter, called in aerial support, and after a nearly three-hour search a SWAT team found Howsare armed in a bathroom and took him into custody.

Howsare, then 62, was charged with first-degree murder, among other counts; a jury later convicted him of lesser counts including second-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, and a firearm offense, and he received a total sentence of 28 years. Does anyone have information about the events on Belle Plains Road that night or knew William Conner Jr.?