On April 3, 2012, 29-year-old Daniel Arthur Adkins Jr. was killed outside a Phoenix Taco Bell near 51st Avenue and Baseline Road after a confrontation in the drive-through area. Adkins was walking his dog when he stepped in front of a vehicle driven by 22-year-old Cordell Lamar Jude, who braked to avoid hitting him. A verbal argument followed; Adkins reportedly struck Jude’s car and was seen by a witness swinging at the vehicle. Jude, who had a pistol in his lap, fired at Adkins, who died at the scene. Jude later told police he believed Adkins had struck the car with a bat or pipe, though investigators did not find any weapon.

The shooting was initially controversial because no arrest was made at first. A grand jury indicted Cordell Lamar Jude in July 2012 on one count of second-degree murder. In November 2013 a jury acquitted him of murder but convicted him of manslaughter, finding his actions not justified under Arizona’s self-defense law but not rising to murder; the conviction was for recklessly causing Adkins’s death. Does anyone have further details about Adkins’s background or witnesses who were there that night?