On April 14, 1994, Robert Leroy Newton was working at a gas station while his stepdaughter kept him company. Leon Taylor and some relatives came in with a gun and demanded cash. Once that was handed over, while Robert was still defensively holding his stepdaughter's hand, Leon shot him in the head. When he tried to kill the 8-year-old girl, Leon's gun jammed. Finding that his accomplices didn't have any other weapons, he left the girl locked in a room with Robert's body. Leon later regretted leaving this loose end, telling his relatives that he "should have choked the bitch." In the aftermath of his murder, Robert's young stepdaughter wrote "The best thing in my life was destroyed... It is dumb for the best, sweetest and kindest man and dad to be killed over a lousy $450."