Jackson could smell alcohol on Cater, Childress said. When asked what he was doing, Childress said Cater answered: “Just relaxing. I’m not doing anything wrong.”

Cater did not say why he had the bacon, Childress said. During questioning, Cater said, “I only put the bacon in the bag. Nothing else,” Childress said.

The defendant and Bobby and Kim Wood had “some bad blood,” Childress said, after the Woods sought an ordinance to make the Sage Lane area of Madison Heights a “no-shoot zone,” a measure the Amherst County Board of Supervisors passed in mid-September 2015.

Cater spoke out against the no-shoot zone last year at county board meetings.

Childress said the Woods are worried about Cater’s access to firearms after his “unusual and frightening behavior.” The commonwealth shares in the public safety concern, he said.

Cater is a military veteran with no prior criminal history, a factor in the commonwealth not prosecuting a felony charge of wearing a mask in public and two misdemeanor counts of drunk in public and attempting to poison a companion animal, Childress said. If he violates conditions of the plea agreement, he will have two years of jail time hanging over him that can be immediately activated, Childress said.