A little before 6:30 p.m. on April 1, police dispatchers received a 911 call from the home of Mark Fisher.

Noises that sounded like gunfire could be heard before the line was disconnected. A second call came in, this time reporting shots had been fired in the same area.

Police responded to Fisher's home, a white, cinder-block shop on North Kenwood Street, in an industrial area just off the Yellowstone Highway. The front door had been blasted open. On the concrete in front of the door lay two 12-gauge shotgun casings.

Inside a large shop area, police found Fisher's body. He had been shot in the chest and head.

A few hours later, Edward Taylor, a 42-year-old Casper resident and self-described former Marine, surrendered to sheriff's deputies in Kaycee. As he was driven back to Casper, he told a Johnson County sheriff's lieutenant that he had shot a man, according to a police affidavit.

Taylor's trial is expected to begin this morning in Natrona County District Court. He is charged with first-degree murder in connection with Fisher's death and faces the possibility of life behind bars if convicted.

The murder trial, the third in Natrona County this year, is expected to last eight days.

District Attorney Michael Blonigen will prosecute the case. Representing Taylor are public defenders Kerri Johnson and Rob Oldham.

Fisher was 48 when he died. Divorced and with two grown children, he was known to family members as an easy-going man who ran heavy equipment for a Casper construction company. In his free time, he hung out with friends, worked on his cars and watched NASCAR - a sport that was so important to him that his family put famous driver Dale Earnhardt's number on Fisher's urn.

On the afternoon of his death, Fisher was watching NASCAR with some friends at his home, according to testimony during Edward Taylor's preliminary hearing and interviews with his family.

One of those friends was Edward Taylor's then wife, Beth. At the time, the Taylors were still living in the same home, but the were getting a divorce, according to court documents.

Beth Taylor later told police that when she left Fisher's home that afternoon, her husband was sitting in his pickup, watching her, court records show. He allegedly got out and grabbed her by the hair.

She drove to the Casper police station on North David Street, with Taylor following her in his 2004 Ford F-250 truck. There, he confronted her and pointed a .45-caliber pistol at her head, according to a police affidavit. She pleaded for her life and Taylor put the gun down. Before he drove away, Beth Taylor noticed a shotgun on the passenger seat of his pickup.

At 6:25 p.m., she reported the incident at the police station. She also called Fisher and told him what had happened.

"Okay, I will watch for him here," he replied.

Soon afterward, police dispatch received the 911 call from Fisher's home.

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@casperstartribune.net.