The deadly crime spree the book covers began in January 2013 when attorney and Justice of the Peace Eric Williams shot and killed Kaufman County, Texas Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse as he exited his car in the courthouse parking lot while Kim Williams waited in the car for him.

The motive for Williams, as testified to in court by his wife Kim, was his anger over a burglary, in which Williams had been arrested and convicted after being caught taking $600 worth of computer monitors from the county's IT storage room,[1] causing him to lose both his position as justice of the peace and his license to practice law.

[3] In December 2014, a jury convicted Eric Williams of capital murder in the 2013 death of Cynthia McLelland.

[5][6] In Plain Sight drew attention in February 2019 when 19-year-old Kevin Alvarez, a suspect in the machete killing of a 15-year-old boy, was pictured entering the Bronx Supreme Court clutching Casey's book about the real-life murders of Texas prosecutors McLelland and Hasse.

[7] The prosecution did not comment about Alvarez taking the book to court or whether they believed it was meant as a threat.