Charles Pray, 57, was working the late shift alone as the cashier at the Low Cost Market in Yuma, Arizona, on the night of August 21, 1983. Shortly before midnight a man later identified as Bernard Smith entered, paid for cigarettes with a five-dollar bill, and when Pray opened the register Smith produced a .22-caliber single-action revolver, cocked the hammer, and demanded the till. Pray called twice for the store manager, and Smith responded by shooting him in the neck at close range. Pray was taken for medical treatment but died later that month from his injuries, turning the robbery into a homicide investigation and leading to a first-degree murder indictment against Smith.

Witnesses and physical evidence tied Smith to the scene. Two women who had been in a car outside the store followed Smith’s vehicle for several blocks and recorded its license plate; officers stopped Smith soon after and found a revolver matching the description and a roll of blood-stained bills consistent with the stolen cash. Smith offered shifting explanations that investigators rejected. What details about Pray’s final hours or the store’s late-night routine might help explain how this robbery escalated to deadly violence?