Willie Henderson was 60 and a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant and Vietnam War veteran living in North Las Vegas. On the morning of January 22, 2010, he spoke by phone with his daughter Sharon Miles about dinner plans. When she could not reach him later that afternoon and checked his home in the 4700 block of Cattleman Drive, she used a spare key and found him deceased in his living room recliner from a gunshot wound to the head.

Responding officers initially saw broken window panes on the rear door suggesting forced entry, but surveillance footage showed Henderson letting a man into the house at about 7:47 a.m., and roughly seventeen minutes later the same man walking outside and kicking in the rear door before leaving.

James pleaded not guilty and maintained he acted in self-defense, saying Henderson — who was legally blind and used a cane — pointed a gun and the weapon discharged during a struggle. Prosecutors said the act was premeditated and pointed to the staged break-in captured on video and lack of struggle in photos. The case went through multiple trials and appeals, producing convictions, overturned verdicts, a hung jury, and further proceedings before a no contest plea to involuntary manslaughter ended the long legal process. Anyone who knew Henderson or has information about that January 2010 morning is asked to come forward.