On March 12, 2015, James Patrick Stuhlman was killed during an evening walk. Brandon Smith and Tyfine Hamilton, both 15 years old, along with a younger accomplice, were on the lookout for a target to rob. They held James at gunpoint, and when he pleaded for his life, they shot him in the chest and fled empty-handed.
James would usually bring his 11-year-old daughter on his evening walks, but happened to go alone that day, which may have saved her life. At trial, James’s wife compared their family to a broken triangle. “We were a symbol of strength… Now one whole side of the triangle is gone. We lost an entire dimension of our lives.”
