Mark A. Cotton Jr., 23, was found shot in the backyard of his Marion, Indiana residence in the late hours of Thursday, November 12, 2015. Investigators determined the shooting was linked to a drug transaction rather than being random.

Text messages recovered from Cotton’s phone were traced to a number associated with 17-year-old Shakur Johnson, which led police to obtain a search warrant for the apartment of Johnson’s girlfriend. Officers arrested Johnson there and recovered bullet cartridges matching those at the scene. Johnson was charged December 29, 2015, with Cotton’s murder and a jury convicted him in November 2017; he received a 55-year sentence with five years suspended, making him eligible for release in as little as 25 years.

Was anyone in the neighborhood that night aware of activity on South Nebraska Street that could help clarify what happened before the shooting?