Willie Henderson, a 60-year-old male, was a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant and a decorated Vietnam War veteran living in North Las Vegas, Nevada. On the morning of January 22, 2010, he spoke with his daughter, Sharon Miles, making plans to have dinner with her that evening. When she was unable to reach him by phone later that afternoon, she went to his home in the 4700 block of Cattleman Drive.
After receiving no response at the door, she used her spare key to enter the house and made a tragic discovery. Her father was deceased in his living room recliner from a gunshot wound to the head.
Responding officers initially found signs of a forced entry; the rear door had broken window panes, suggesting a burglary. However, Henderson had a surveillance system that told a different story. The video footage showed that Henderson had willingly let a man into his home at approximately 7:47 a.m. that day. Roughly seventeen minutes later, the same man was recorded going outside and kicking in the rear door before leaving the premises. This led investigators to believe the break-in was staged to cover up the true nature of the crime.
The man seen in the video was identified as Billy Ray James, Henderson's 41-year-old godson who occasionally worked as a handyman for him. North Las Vegas police arrested James in February 2010. He was charged with murder with a deadly weapon with a victim older than 60, burglary with a deadly weapon, and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. The ensuing legal process was long and complex. James maintained that he had acted in self-defense, claiming that Henderson, who was legally blind and walked with a cane, had pointed a gun at him during a quarrel and that the weapon discharged accidentally during a struggle.
Prosecutors argued that the act was premeditated murder, highlighting that crime scene photos showed no signs of a struggle and the surveillance video captured James faking the break-in and leaving without seeking help for Henderson. The case went through multiple trials. A jury first convicted James of first-degree murder in 2012, but the verdict was later overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court. A subsequent trial resulted in a hung jury, with the panel reportedly deadlocked 11-to-1 in favor of acquittal. A third trial in April 2016 again resulted in a guilty verdict, but a mistrial was declared shortly after when it was discovered jurors had viewed evidence that was not permitted. Ultimately, after years of legal proceedings, Billy Ray James pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter. Having already spent six years in prison, he was subsequently released.
