On the night of August 16, 1991, in Manassas, Virginia, 30-year-old Timothy Rigney was working as manager of a Little Caesars when two masked, armed men entered at about 10:30 p.m. One shorter man jumped over the counter and grabbed cash from a register while the taller assailant stayed on the other side. Both pointed semiautomatic weapons at Rigney and demanded he open a second register. When Rigney struggled with the drawer, the taller man shot him in the chest; the single gunshot was fatal. The robbers fled on foot with about $100.

Investigators later identified the taller man as 28-year-old Carl Hamilton Chichester, who had been staying at a Red Roof Inn in Manassas, and the accomplice as Sheldon Maurice McDowell. Chichester was charged with capital murder, convicted by a Prince William County jury and sentenced to death; two of four trial witnesses testified that he was the shooter. McDowell was also convicted of murder and received a 71-year prison term.