New Year's Limo on Speer

In the first hours of 1 January 2007 a limousine carrying Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and a party of friends home from a nightclub's New Year's Eve celebration was travelling through downtown Denver when fifteen rounds were fired into it from a passing vehicle. Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was killed; two other passengers were wounded and fourteen more were unhurt. Prosecutors charged Willie Clark, a member of the Tre Tre Crips, with murder after deliberation, extreme-indifference murder, sixteen counts of attempted first-degree murder, assault, violent-crime counts and possession of a weapon by a previous offender. Their theory was gang honour: Clark believed the Williams party had disrespected his crew at the club and shot up the limo out of loyalty to the gang. The key witness was Daniel Harris, who had been in the shooters' vehicle and testified under an immunity deal. The defence said Harris was the real gunman and had lied to buy himself a deal, and attacked the gang expert who explained the Crips' 'code of respect'. Several other witnesses invoked the Fifth Amendment. After the verdict the defence alleged juror misconduct: an alternate said jurors had run their own experiment watching traffic on Speer to judge car colours, and had discussed guilt over lunch before deliberations began.