In 1995, Curtis Brooks was 15 and homeless in the Denver area. He had left Maryland for Colorado in order to reunite with his drug-addicted mother, but that didn't go at all as planned. Rather, Brooks took to couch surfing and sleeping on garage floors, until he met a group of teenagers at the local arcade.

After crashing on Deon Harris' couch for a few nights, Harris and a few of his friends asked Brooks to help them steal a car. Brooks, who at the time had no criminal record, agreed to the plan and was handed a gun he was supposed to fire into the air to distract the unsuspecting car owner.

However, that night didn't go at all as planned. The group indeed approached a stranger, and Brooks shot into the air as instructed, but Harris shot the car owner in the head and killed him on the spot. The teenagers attempted to flee the scene, but police found them easily by following their tracks in the snow.

Brooks explained his role and confessed to his participation in the crime. But even though he wasn't the one to pull the trigger, Brooks was convicted of first-degree murder and given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.