October 2012. Five boys, Blake Layman and Jose Quiroz both 16 years old, Levi Sparks a year older at 17, Anthony Sharp who was 18 at the time, and Danzele Johnson, aged 21, all broke into a house which they thought was empty in the town of Elkhart, Indiana. None of them were armed when they entered and only one, Sparks, remained outside to act as a lookout. Unfortunately, the five of them were wrong about the house being vacant and when the break-in was over, two of them would end up being shot by the homeowner, Rodney Scott, who was awoken by their intrusion. Danzele would die from his injuries as a result of a gunshot wound to his chest. However, Elkhart County prosecutors exonerated Scott of the killing and instead charged the other four boys with Danzele's murder (Drizin & Keller 2014). Nearly a year later, the four boys received harsh punishments in the form of prison sentences of 55 years for Layman and Sharp (the former also suffering a gunshot wound in the altercation), 50 years for Sparks (who wasn't even in the home at the time) and a 45 year sentence for Quiroz (who made a plea deal which he tried to rescind at the time of his sentencing). The case was controversial for the significantly high sentences that came to the four who were all charged as adults despite three of them being minors at the time of the shooting (Effron & Hawkins 2014). It also thrust a felony statute into the national spotlight that put the responsibility for Danzele's murder on his four accomplices instead of the man who pulled the trigger by way of the circumstances in which the death occurred.
