A Durham shooting was tied to domestic violence — but was it self-defense or murder?
Almost a year after a Durham woman is accused of fatally shooting her ex-boyfriend, court documents show both prosecutors and her defense attorneys are claiming domestic violence occurred in the relationship.
Antoniquette Rigsbee, 48, is charged with murder, first-degree kidnapping and misdemeanor stalking in the death of Samuel Carr, 43, also of Durham, The News & Observer previously reported.
Rigsbee, who was arrested almost two months after Carr’s death, is accused of shooting him in his Old Chapel Hill Road home in the early morning hours of March 28, 2024. But filings by prosecutors and Rigsbee’s public defenders indicate the story may not be that simple.
When police arrived about 1:30 a.m., they found a wounded Carr lying on the floor next to Rigsbee, who had blood on her hands, according to a search warrant.
“Rigsbee told officers that Carr head butted her and had her in a headlock,” the warrant states. “Rigsbee stated Carr was grabbing her gun and it went off.”
Carr was pronounced dead at the scene, while Rigsbee was taken to Duke Hospital for head pain, where she remained for about a week, according to court documents. Investigators discovered the pair had dated for about three years, but had broken up in December or January.
The narrative of what happened that night grew more complicated from there.
‘Why do you have me in a head lock?’
About nine hours before the shooting, Rigsbee texted Carr to ask if she could retrieve her flat iron from his home, according to search warrants. The two had been broken up for a few months but were still occasionally seeing each other, and Rigsbee had dropped by Carr’s home earlier that day to drop off a birthday present he said “touched him,” the warrants state.
Carr didn’t respond, but not long after, the couple reportedly ran into each other at The Blue Note Grill in Durham, a spot Carr frequented, search warrants state.
“Mr. Carr bought Ms. Rigsbee a drink and they shared a dance,” one search warrant states. “Later that evening, Ms. Rigsbee started to text Mr. Carr again about trying to get her flat iron.”
It’s unclear when Rigsbee arrived at Carr’s home, but when she did, he had a friend over, search warrants say. Carr let her in, and the friend told police she didn’t see a gun on Rigsbee at that time.
According to that friend, Rigsbee and Carr went upstairs to Carr’s bedroom and began arguing, the warrants allege.
“She heard [Rigsbee] ‘hit the floor’ at one point, and then heard [Carr] say something about [Rigsbee] having a gun,” a search warrant states. “[The friend] could hear [Carr] pacing around the room and throwing things, while she was standing about halfway up the stairs checking things out.”
Though the friend offered to call police, Carr told her everything was fine and that she could leave, so the woman left, according to court documents.
Rigsbee told police Carr began to break things and headbutted her at one point, according to court documents. He allegedly put her in a headlock and began to fight her for the gun in her hip holster, search warrants state.
Sometime during the altercation, Rigsbee called a mutual friend, who told police he could hear arguing in the background before the call ended, according to search warrants. Rigsbee then called back, and he heard her shout, “Why do you have me in a head lock?”
Those words were followed by a shot, search warrants state.
“[Rigsbee] screamed for [the friend] to call police, and he told her to call while he headed over to [Carr’s] house,” a search warrant says. “[Rigsbee] called police, hysterical.”
DIFFERING NARRATIVES
Court documents outline competing narratives on the the fatal argument.
According to a motion filed by Rigsbee’s attorneys, Carr’s best friend told police he’d “broken a chair and punched a wall in reaction to anger with [Rigsbee] in the past, and that [Rigsbee] ‘would make [Carr] aggravated all the time.’”
Furthermore, Rigsbee reportedly captured hours of recordings of Carr allegedly verbally abusing her and becoming violent, court documents state. Those recordings began in August 2023.
“There are dozens of hours of recordings on Ms. Rigsbee’s phone,” a defense motion states. “These recordings show an alarming pattern of deeply abusive treatment of Ms. Rigsbee by Mr. Carr.”
That alleged treatment included statements like “how he [didn’t] want to hurt her, but she [made] him lose control,” court documents state. One video recorded about a month before Carr’s death captured him punching a hole in his bedroom door because of a photo Rigsbee had posted on Facebook.
“Ms. Rigsbee, believing the broken door to be her fault … went to Lowes and purchased him a new door,” the defense motion states.
The last recording, an hour-and-a-half-long video, captured the final minutes before the shooting.
“Mr. Carr and Ms. Rigsbee argued extensively from topics ranging from the child Ms. Rigsbee miscarried to how Ms. Rigsbee engaged with [Carr’s friend] when she came in, to Ms. Rigsbee’s need for her flat iron,” a defense motion states. “It is clear in these recordings and in a brief video recording from Mr. Carr’s phone that Ms. Rigsbee was holding her gun.”
Rigsbee was ultimately referred by Duke physicians to a therapist for mental health treatment as a survivor of domestic violence, court documents allege.
Prosecutors, however, claim Rigsbee was an abusive partner who stalked Carr in the months after their breakup — a narrative that Carr’s friends also shared with police.
“[A friend] stated that Rigsbee was obsessive and would call Carr all the time and show up randomly at the same places they were hanging out,” a search warrant states. “[The friend] stated Carr had to put limits on Rigsbee because she would just show up at his house without letting him know she was coming over.”
Carr kept in touch with her because she owed him money for her car and he was helping her pay her rent, the warrant alleges.
“[The friend] stated that Rigsbee would try to call him to find out what Carr was doing,” the warrant says. “[The friend] stated he had to block her on social media and on his phone due to [the] amount of times she called him.”
Another friend told investigators Carr was in therapy because of Rigsbee’s behavior. She had advised Carr to get a restraining order, but he didn’t, search warrants state.
Rigsbee was initially being held in the Durham County jail without bail, but a judge ordered that bail be set at $300,000 in October so she could receive medical and mental health treatment, court records show. Rigsbee posted bail Nov. 3 and is only allowed to leave home for appointments with her doctors and attorneys, according to court documents.
Rigsbee is next set to appear in court April 17.
