Nicole duFresne (January 5, 1977 – January 27, 2005) was an American playwright and actress. She was murdered on a sidewalk on Manhattan's Lower East Side when a group of seven teens accosted and mugged a group consisting of duFresne, her fiancé Jeffrey Sparks, her close friend Mary Jane Gibson and Gibson's boyfriend Scott Nath sometime after 3:00 a.m. on January 27, 2005. Events In the early morning hours of January 27, 2005, duFresne, Sparks, Gibson and Nath were returning home from a night of celebratory drinking. DuFresne had just started a new interim job as a bartender at the Rockwood Music Hall. As duFresne's group was walking down bistro-lined Clinton Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a group of five young men and two girls approached them, "spoiling for a fight and looking for victims." The group had already mugged a man for his leather jacket and menaced a girl at a subway station that same night. According to testimony by another member of the group, Rudy Fleming stated, "I'd like to bang on these people right here." Fleming demanded money. Sparks pushed his way past, at which point Fleming swung with both hands, striking him across his left temple with a Taurus .357 magnum, which he had been holding pointed downward at the sidewalk. According to Sparks neither he nor anyone else in the group had realized that Fleming had a gun. Another robber, Servisio Simmons, reportedly said, "It doesn't have to be like this. My friend's buggin'. We just want the money." Fleming took Gibson's purse and cell phone and gave them to the girls, Ashley Evans and Tatiana McDonald. DuFresne turned to Sparks who was dazed and bleeding profusely from his left eye, asking if he was okay. He indicated that he was and said "Let's just go". Nath took Sparks by the arm and they ran away, north on Clinton toward Rivington Street. Gibson turned to follow. According to New York Times reporting of the trial, duFresne then confronted the attackers. “What are you going to do, you going to shoot us? Is that what you wanted?” duFresne demanded. As she shouted those words, she walked up to Rudy Fleming and looked him in the eye. Fleming reacted by pushing duFresne in the chest with his left hand. DuFresne stumbled backward, then bounced back and shouted her question again: “What are you going