On Thurday, June 19, 2008, Matthew Butler, age 28, who owned Zion Gate Records, a small recording studio in Garland, Texas, and Stephen Swan, 26, his sound engineer, were murdered as they emerged from a recording session in the early morning hours. The police arrested two men alleged to be their assailants, each of whom was 19 years old, and found driving Mr. Butler’s car, a decade-old Crown Victoria.

I am not acquainted with either the men killed nor with the men accused of the killing. The killing took place roughly a ten-minute drive from my law office.

This song was created by sampling from a plastic party favor picked up for less than two dollars at a “Party House” store in a suburban mini-mall.

This incident caused me to think about the senselessness of violent crime, and the tragedy for so many people, not least Mr. Butler’s two very young children.