Home invasion.

On the afternoon of July 14, James Burnett was showering at his apartment in Grand Prairie, Texas, when a female friend in the living room began screaming. Two men armed with a handgun and a crowbar had forced their way into the residence.

The intruders, Gerald Marshall and Byron Gamble, forced Burnett and the woman into the bathroom at gunpoint, then began ransacking the apartment. The thugs eventually found a safe, containing jewelry and valuable coins, in a bedroom closet. They dragged Burnett into the bedroom and made him open it, but as one of the home invaders began removing the valuables, Burnett reached for a handgun concealed in the recliner by his bed. The robbers noticed and began hitting him on his head and back.

Despite the pummeling, Burnett was able to draw the gun. With the tables suddenly turned, the robbers ran out the front door and down three flights of stairs as Burnett, in hot pursuit, fired a number of shots. One hit Marshall in the side; two others struck Gamble in the right thigh and a foot. Marshall died from his wound, but Gamble escaped with $5,000 worth of coins, a $2,000 diamond ring, and some $400 in cash.

On July 19, Gamble and another man attempted to sell Burnett's coin collection at Heritage Galleries & Auctioneer in Dallas. However, a perceptive gallery employee remembered details of the theft from news accounts and called Dallas police as the men waited for an appraisal. Following their arrest, Gamble claimed that he had received the coin collection from a friend, Gerald Marshall, who had recently died! Soon, however, he admitted that he had been involved in the armed robbery, but maintained that he did not know why Burnett's apartment had been targeted. He said that Marshall planned the botched heist and that he went along without asking any questions.

Gamble was turned over to Grand Prairie authorities and charged with aggravated robbery. A Grand Prairie Police Department spokesman told reporters that a case against Burnett would be referred to a grand jury (standard procedure), but that investigators believed Burnett was justified in using deadly force.