Sonny Coulter

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A convicted rapist with a long rap sheet in Butler County and Tennessee shot a man Thursday afternoon in his adopted southern neighborhood before killing himself, police say.

Sonny S. Coulter, 47, originally of Boyers, shot and killed Ethan Love, 29, in the front yard of Coulter's home in the Hermitage neighborhood of Nashville.

According to Nashville Metropolitan police reports, Love was dating the mother of Coulter's two children.

After shooting Love, Coulter contacted the woman via FaceTime, where she noticed Love's body on the ground in the background.

The woman called the police, as did a neighbor who Coulter had texted to say that he had just shot a man in his yard.

When police approached the house and called out to Coulter, they heard a shotgun blast coming from the rear of the house.

They found Coulter's body in the back yard with a fatal head wound, according to police reports.

Coulter had told the woman on FaceTime that “he was not going to prison and that (police) would find his body behind a trailer at the rear of the house,” which is where Coulter committed suicide.

Police said Coulter and Love had been involved in multiple disputes lately, including one Nov. 18 in which Coulter threatened Love with a shovel.

Police did not say why Love had gone to Coulter's house, but Nashville news outlets are reporting that he was there to pick up items belonging to the woman.

Coulter was convicted of crimes in both Butler County and Tennessee over a period of almost two decades.

The Butler Eagle archives show that Coulter was one of two instigators in an April 2010 fight at the Butler County Prison involving five men.

Coulter was awaiting sentencing in Butler County court on drunken driving and reckless endangerment charges stemming from a high-speed police chase in December 2009.

In that incident, Coulter was charged with theft, driving under the influence, seven counts of reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, fleeing to attempt to elude police, six counts each of criminal mischief and failing to stop at a stop sign, reckless driving and hit-and-run, filed Dec. 24.

In April 2009, Coulter was charged with terroristic threats and simple assault involving a 44-year-old woman in Cherry Township. He was later committed to Butler Memorial Hospital for mental health issues.

Coulter also ran afoul of the law in Tennessee between 2001 and 2010.

He was convicted in 2008 of an aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping committed in 2001 and served eight years in prison with a lifetime supervision requirement, according to Davidson County, Tenn., court records.

Those records show that he violated supervision multiple times and was charged with tampering with his monitoring device as well.

Other crimes for which Coulter was convicted in Tennessee included felony vandalism, tampering with evidence and sex offender registration violations.