Richard Alan Maxwell was a 33-year-old California Highway Patrol officer killed on July 11, 1994, in Sacramento while attempting to stop a suspected stolen vehicle. The vehicle pulled into a residential driveway; the occupants, a father and son who lived at the home, became combative. During the struggle the son took a shotgun from the vehicle and Officer Maxwell grappled with him. The father retrieved a 12-gauge shotgun from the garage and opened fire, shooting Maxwell in the face. Maxwell attempted to return fire but was shot again above the neckline and died shortly after despite aid from two fellow officers.

Both the father and son were arrested and charged with murder. The father’s case went through multiple trials: an initial first-degree murder conviction and life sentence, appeals leading to a federal court-ordered new trial, two retrials that ended in hung juries, and a later retrial in Santa Maria that resulted in a voluntary manslaughter conviction; the judge ordered his immediate release after credit for roughly 12 years already served. The son, a juvenile at the time, was convicted of second-degree murder and sent to the Youth Authority until age 25 and has since been released.

Officer Maxwell had served five years with the CHP and was survived by his wife, Marlene, and daughter, Megan.