On July 5, 1995, the prosecutor charged Riley Noel with the capital murders of the three children and the attempted capital murder of Mary Hussian. On June 4, 1995, Noel, appellant Carroll, Curtis Lee Cochran, and Tracy Trinette Calloway were riding around Little Rock in Cochran's car, "getting high" on drugs. Noel believed that another child of Mary Hussian, a daughter, had been involved in his brother's death. Noel apparently believed one of Hussian's daughters had set up his brother's death in a drive-by shooting, which had occurred about a week earlier. Noel told three children in the residence to get down on the floor, and Calloway testified that she told them to do what Noel said. Calloway watched Noel shoot each of the children in the head and kill them.