Neighbors and eyewitnesses are coming forward and saying the man accused of beating his 46-year old neighbor with a baseball bat on Friday was protecting himself from the woman and her family.

Eyewitnesses said it all started when John Conover was walking down Mercer Street to his friend’s house Friday afternoon. Neighbor, Roslyn Williams said two boys approached Conover, harassed him and began to beat him with baseball bats.

"He was just coming down the street and they jumped out on him, Williams said. “They had bats and they're known for being bad them boys."

Not long afterwards, the boys mother, Alterese Carter,46, and her husband pulled up in a car by a telephone pole and joined in.
Williams was sitting on a bench in a neighbor’s yard across the street when she heard a woman named Kiki yell that Conover was being jumped. She immediately ran over and said she tried to break up the fight.

"I stood there and watched them go at it with the bat,” Williams said. “One of the boys throw the bat at John and she (Carter) was there swinging at John. John picked up the bat. She had a bat. She was swinging and he swung back at her.”

A police report said Carter was hit in the head with a bat, however Williams said that's not true.

"He hit her below her waist and she fell," she said.

Williams said Carter’s head hit the ground and she immediately became unconscious. Carter's husband took her to the Medical Center of Central Georgia where she died Saturday. Now, Conover's girlfriend,Alicia Wilson, and family members said they're shocked police have now charged him with murder.

"I'm angry, I'm really angry because he’s the one that called the cops," Wilson said.

"He doesn't bother nobody,” Conover’s brother, William Conover said. “He's easy going guy but he's a guy if you push a button if you push him, you got a problem then."

Police said they won't comment on the details of the case. Williams said she talked with one of the Carter's sons on Sunday who said the situation started over a ladder Conover borrowed from the family. WGXA tried to make contact with the Carter family but there was a dog in their front yard and it appeared nobody was home.