Kurt Barlow, 19, of Vernon Township, Illinois, was fatally shot in the chest on January 2, 1984, while at the home of his friend Elizabeth Lou in suburban Lincolnshire. Kurt, Elizabeth and another couple were watching the Rose Bowl when 17-year-old Kimberly Branham of Long Grove fired a high-powered rifle from about 167 feet away and struck Kurt through a large picture window after Kurt stepped up to the window to extinguish matches on the sill.

Prosecutors said jealousy over a deteriorated relationship between Kimberly and Elizabeth — Kimberly had been in a close lesbian relationship with Elizabeth that had ended by fall 1983, and Elizabeth began dating Kurt in December 1983 — was the motive. At trial Kimberly Branham testified the gun went off accidentally when she grabbed it and the defense portrayed her as a confused, suicidal teenager; the jury convicted her of murder after about nine hours of deliberation and sentenced her to 30 years in prison.