After 25 days in jail, a $500,000 bond was set Friday for an in-house attorney charged with murder in connection with what the state calls a road rage incident and what the defense characterizes as a traffic accident.

The decision by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer followed a nearly 2½-hour, emotional bond hearing in a packed courtroom where two very different pictures of Bryan K. Schmitt of Sandy Springs were painted. One where the U.S. Army captain veteran and now associate corporate counsel and director of contracts at supply chain and technology company Manhattan Associates is a consummate gentleman who is always thoughtful and respectful of others and never prone to anger or aggression. The other of a rageful man whose violent actions left two young adult daughters, still reeling from the death of their mother just a year before, in tremendous fear of the man they said ran down their father with his car.

"My father represented the American dream, but Bryan Schmitt's actions have made me lose faith in my own American dream," said Sepeideh Jahangard, the 23-year-old daughter of Hamid Jahangard.

Hamid Jahangard, a 60-year-old real estate investor who emigrated from Iran, became a U.S. citizen and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, all while working as a waiter to support himself and his young sister, died three days after an encounter with Schmitt in the 300 block of River Valley Road in Sandy Springs. Schmitt, 48, is charged with murder, felony murder and aggravated assault and appeared unshaven in county jail garb in court Friday.

As the testimony in Friday's hearing made clear, many of the facts surrounding the incident are highly disputed.

"The defendant has not been indicted for a traffic accident like the defense is characterizing this," senior assistant district attorney Brett Pinion said. "The state does not see this as a traffic accident but an intentional taking of a great citizen's life."

According to court documents, Jahangard, who was standing at the end of a driveway, and Schmitt, who was driving north along the residential street shortly after 5 p.m. on July 30, exchanged words after Schmitt claimed that Jahangard threw a golf ball or rock at his Mercedes-Benz sedan.

Schmitt then, according to reports he gave the police, said he started to pull into the driveway but that Jahangard pushed a trash car toward his car. In swerving to miss the trash can, Schmitt said he hit another trash can that in turn hit Jahangard and knocked him to the ground.

But video surveillance from a heating and air conditioning vehicle obtained several days after the incident shows that, "Schmitt's vehicle plows into the driveway and is not the type of driving for someone to 'turn around,' 'swerve to miss a garbage can,' 'he pushed a garbage can into my car and bounced off it and was knocked down' or 'he jumped in front of my car,'" according to a report by a Sandy Springs Police investigator who viewed the footage.

The report continued: "The speed used to vault the garbage can, lift the front end of his car up and to slam the victim down so hard it causes a massive skull fracture where blood is squirting out his ears seconds after impact is not an accident."

In addition to those fatal injuries to the back of his head, Jahangard also suffered severe injuries to his left temporal and right orbital bones, both orbital sinuses and a tibia fracture in his right leg, prosecutor Pinion said Friday, adding it is the existence of the video evidence showing the violent nature of the encounter that led the state to ask that bond be denied.

"We would not be here if it were not for the video," he said. "It conflicts with the defendant's story that he did a U-turn, pulled into a driveway and hit a trash can."

The state believes, Pinion added, that, once this evidence is turned over, the likelihood of conviction will be realized and, given the severity of the sentence for a conviction, there is a substantial risk that Schmitt will flee.

The judge rejected this argument, apparently buying the five character witnesses' testimony that their friend, colleague and husband would not flee. In addition to their testimony—as well as numerous letters submitted on Schmitt's behalf—that he won't flee, intimidate witnesses, obstruct justice or pose a danger, many spoke of Schmitt's calm temperament.

"When I am angry, he is my voice of reason," said Sabrina Kelkar, who worked with Schmitt at Beazer Homes and later SunTrust Bank. She described Schmitt, a graduate of Georgia State University College of Law and member in good standing of the state bar since 2015, as a "best friend." "I've always been able to count on him to tell me when I'm being unreasonable in a situation. I cannot recall a single instance, not one, where I have heard him raise his voice or lose his cool."

As part of Schmitt's bond conditions, he must surrender his driver's license and not go within a half-mile radius of Manhattan Associates, which is located near the Jahangard daughters' late mother's home, except between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Schmitt's attorney, Don Samuel, said after the hearing that he expects his client to make bond, though he may not be released until Monday, after which he plans to return to work.