William Phatzo Craig Hawkins, 39, was killed at his Dothan, Alabama home on the evening of May 16, 2016, during a robbery carried out by a group of teenagers. Five youths planned the robbery; two of them, Devonte Thornton, 16, and Brandon Bigham, 16, entered Hawkins’s residence and shot him while three others — Va’Kevis Raiel Collins, then 19, Ricky Smith, and an unnamed juvenile — waited nearby.

Arrests followed and prosecutions began. Va’Kevis Raiel Collins was tried in March 2018, convicted of felony murder, and sentenced to life in prison; that conviction was upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in November 2018. Thornton, Bigham, and Smith were moved into the adult system or awaiting trial at various points, and the unnamed juvenile’s case was handled in juvenile court with confidential adjudication.