During her relationship with James Filiaggi, which included two years of marriage, she called police several times to lodge domestic abuse complaints against him. None resulted in formal charges.

After the couple divorced in February 1993 and Lisa Filiaggi got engaged to another man a few months later, the gravity of the allegations increased.

On December 19, 1993, when Lisa Filiaggi and her fiancé went to pick up her children from her ex-husband's home, they brought a tape recorder in an effort to capture proof of his abusive behavior.

James Filiaggi claims his ex-wife provoked him into a verbal argument that escalated into physical violence after he grabbed her neck. When Lisa Filiaggi's fiancé, Eric Beiswenger, intervened, James Filiaggi attacked him.

Beiswenger was hospitalized with multiple fractures and broken bones to the face, and James Filiaggi was charged with felonious assault. As a result of the attack, Lisa Filiaggi and her fiancé got a restraining order against James Filiaggi.

One month later, the couple rigged a camera outside their home, which captured James Filiaggi throwing a bottle at a window. Filiaggi was charged with attempted vandalism, criminal trespassing and intimidating a witness. He was released on bond, but his visits with his children were suspended.

In an interview with CourtTVnews.com, Filiaggi said that after the incident, he felt that his life and his career were over and he fell into a "sea of depression."

Three days later, Filiaggi says he went to his ex-wife's home with the intention of "putting his brains on the wall" to punish her. But when he arrived at her home, he says, he was overcome by emotion and decided to kill her instead.

He broke into the home where his two children were sleeping. Lisa Filiaggi ran out, screaming.

Her neighbor, Robert Mutansky, let her into his home, but James Filiaggi was right behind her. He broke through the front door and led Mutansky around at gunpoint searching for his ex-wife.

According to Mutansky, Filiaggi found her in a linen closet and dragged her out by the hair into a bathroom. He heard James Filiaggi shout, "This will teach you to f--k with me," followed by two gunshots.

Lisa Filiaggi was shot in the shoulder and attempted to hobble out of the bathroom. She made it as far as the bedroom before James Filiaggi caught up with her and shouted, "This will teach you to f--k with me" once more before shooting her two more times in the head.

He fled and went to the home of his ex-wife's mother, who he believed was the "root" of his problems with Lisa. But his former in-law was in Florida visiting her ailing mother, and he came upon his ex-wife's stepfather, Delbert Yepko, instead.

At his trial, prosecutors claimed Filiaggi shot at Yepko but missed after Yepko sprayed him with mace. In an interview with CourtTVnews.com, Filiaggi denied he fired any bullets.

"Let's just say it's a good thing her mother wasn't there," Filiaggi said.

At his trial, Filiaggi pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated attempting murder and kidnapping. He was simultaneously tried on the felonious assault charge stemming from the attack on his ex-wife's fiancée.

A three-judge panel rejected claims from defense medical experts who said Filiaggi suffered from a chemical imbalance that precluded him from understanding the wrongfulness of his actions. He was convicted of four of the counts, including aggravated murder, and sentenced to death in 1995.

After Filiaggi was sent to death row, he attempted suicide in 1996 by slitting his wrists. During the attempt, he says, God appeared to him and told him that it was not his time. Filiaggi told CourtTVnews.com that the experience taught him to accept his fate.

Filiaggi is scheduled to be executed April 24, 2007. He says he has accepted his punishment, but still feels that none of this would have happened if his ex-wife had not used his children as "pawns in a vicious game."

"I think the only one that could have done anything to prevent things going the way they did is myself and Lisa," he said. "It's just tragic how everything happened and turned out the way it did."