Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney lured gay college student Matthew Sheppard from a Laramie, Wyoming bar, pistol-whipped him and left him tied to a fence outside of town. Matthew was found some 18 hours later by a passer-by and died in a hospital five days later on October 12, 1998.

At his trial, Russell acknowledged that he tied Matthew to the fence and watched as Aaron beat and kicked Matthew. Other than one failed plea to Aaron to stop the beat- ing, he did nothing to stop the assault.