William Rex Fowler, 58, at first to believed to be the victim in a Dec. 30 shooting at his Adams County office, has been arrested and charged with the murder of his former business partner.

Investigators say Fowler shot Tommy Ciancio, 42, three times in the head with a 9mm Glock handgun when Ciancio came to Fowler Software Design to collect $9,900 in severance.

Ciancio, who was Fowler Software’s chief operating officer, resigned Nov. 23, 2009 in a dispute over the way the company was being managed.

On Dec. 29, 2009, he agreed to a settlement and to sign a waiver of release in exchange for the payment, company CEO Laura Zaspel told investigators.

Employees of the software company, which reportedly had suffered financial difficulties since 2008, related in part to the transfer of as much as $200,000 to a church or charity by Fowler, told investigators that Ciancio arrived around 10 a.m. Dec. 30 to collect his check.

After greeting former colleagues and asking them about their New Year’s Eve plans, he asked to speak to Ubaldo Ciminieri, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, who had stepped away from his desk. Ciancio then went downstairs to Fowler’s office.

According to the arrest affidavit, the employees told investigators the next thing they heard was gunshots.

Police were called by another tenant in the Elati Building near West 84th Avenue and Elati Street in unincorporated Adams County.

When officers arrived at the building, they saw Fowler coming out through the door, bleeding from the face. Investigators said he took one step past the threshold, then walked back in. Police rushed into the building, and escorted Fowler back out.

When Fowler attempted to speak to police, blood rushed out of his mouth. They asked if Ciancio was still in the building and he shook his head up and down to say “yes.” They asked if Ciancio shot him and Fowler did not respond, investigators said.

Fowler was loaded into an ambulance and transported to Denver Health Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery. During the surgery, police said, Fowler’s hands were bagged to protect evidence of gunshot residue, which was later collected by investigators.

Inside Fowler’s office, police found Ciancio’s body. They said he appeared to have been sitting at a table when he was shot. They also found the murder weapon and four 9mm Luger shell casings. They found a handgun magazine on the table, and another in a closet in the office.

Investigators say the gun was registered to Andrew Hyung Fowler, 26, who lived at 1413 L. Ron Hubbard Way in Los Angeles, when it was purchased. In interviews with police, Andrew Fowler said he gave the gun to his father for Christmas in 2007.

Police also found a briefcase and a typed note, dated Dec. 30 and signed by Fowler, that advised there was nothing confidential in the satchel and that it should be given to his wife, Janet.

When Janet Fowler was interviewed by detectives, she told them she wanted the briefcase returned immediately.

“It is important to me and my church. It is religious material and I want it now,” she said to investigators. “Even if you looked at it, and read it, you would not understand anything in it. Because it is way above a normal person and you would not know what it meant. I want it back right now.”

Janet Fowler also reportedly told investigators that her husband “is a Scientologist and would not have gone without a fight. He would have grabbed a gun in a struggle and would not have let someone shoot him.”

She also told investigators that Ciancio had sent e-mails to Rex Fowler, threatening to hire an attorney and sue over money he said was owed him.

Adams County officials said Fowler is in custody, but would not say where he is being held. He was last at Denver Health Medical Center, but his name no longer appears on patient rosters.