Shortly after midnight on December 27, 1989, security guard Richards Butts, 61, was working the overnight shift at the Short Stop convenience store at 48th Street and Broadway Road in Phoenix. The store’s clerk, Ron Barman, was also on duty. An armed robber entered, brandished a handgun, and demanded money; surveillance time-lapse video later shown at trial captured a man in a dark sweater with a band of light-colored, diamond-shaped markings across the chest and arms. Both Barman and Butts were shot during the robbery, which yielded about $72.

A passing driver found Butts outside the store with his service holster empty; the suspect briefly returned and was seen wiping the holster and belt with a cloth before fleeing. Witnesses tied Eric John King to the scene: a nearby resident, Nekita Renee Hill, reported seeing King walking toward a dumpster carrying a thin plastic bag; police recovered that bag with a handgun and a matching sweater inside. Michael Jones testified he had gone to the store with King, stayed outside, heard shots, and then saw King leave holding a gun; Jones became a cooperating witness and was not charged.

King was arrested December 28, 1989, tried, convicted of two counts of first-degree murder on September 5, 1990, and later sentenced to death.