(CNN) -- To start with, Cordell Jude was hungry. 

He was 22, the spring days were growing longer and the temperature in Phoenix had climbed to 80 degrees that Tuesday in April 2012. 

It was not much cooler as the sun slipped behind the Sierra Estrella mountains, so shortly before 8 pm, Jude drove with his pregnant fianceÃ© toward a suburban intersection crowded with fast-food restaurants, a Home Depot, a Starbucks, drug stores and gas stations. 

Not far off, another man was headed the same way. Daniel Adkins was 29, older than Jude, but mentally disabled. His family described him as more like a 12- or 13-year-old. Adkins was walking his yellow Labrador retriever named Lady past a Taco Bell in the gathering evening, when he stepped around a blind corner and was nearly hit by Jude's vehicle. 

Police say the two men exchanged angry words, the dispute rapidly escalated, and it ended when Jude pulled out a .40-caliber pistol and shot Adkins dead. 

Jude, who was still in his car at the time of the shooting, told police it was self-defense, that Adkins had lunged at him with a bat of some kind. But investigators found no such weapon, and even if they had County Attorney Bill Montgomery says, "The threshold that people believe needs to be crossed when they brandish a weapon, never mind actually use it ... is a lot higher than what it actually is." 

Jude is now charged with murder in that killing last year, and because he is black and Adkins was not, the case is drawing comparisons to the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. 
Who was headed the same way as Jude?
Not far off, another man was headed the same way. Daniel Adkins