Posted on 04/24/2014 11:07:12 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — A Minnesota man who killed two teenagers who broke into his home can be heard on an audio recording talking to himself for hours after the shooting and at one point, apparently describing the slain teens as "vermin."
Byron Smith, of Little Falls, faces first-degree premeditated murder charges in the deaths of 18-year-old Haile Kifer and 17-year-old Nick Brady on Thanksgiving Day in 2012. Smith, 65, claimed he was defending himself and feared for his life after several break-ins at his home.
Prosecutors, though, say Smith planned the killings. They say he sat in a chair in his basement and waited for the teens to enter his home, instead of calling police.
Smith waited a full day after he shot them before asking a neighbor to call the authorities....
The killings stunned this central Minnesota community and stirred debate about how far people can go to defend their homes. Under Minnesota law, a person may use deadly force to prevent a felony from taking place in one's home or dwelling, but authorities have said Smith crossed a line when he continued to shoot the teens after they were no longer a threat.
Authorities who searched Smith's home after the killings testified Wednesday that they found an audio recorder that was turned on and an operating video surveillance system. The recorder was sitting on top of books on a bookshelf, near a chair where prosecutors say Smith waited for the teens....
Prosecutors also showed images from surveillance cameras that Smith had set up outside his home. The four different camera angles showed Smith leaving his home in his truck at 11:25 a.m. on the day of the killings, then returning on foot at 11:45.
At 12:33 p.m., Brady shows up in a hooded, camouflage jacket ...
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Potatoes, potatoes, methinks you are an enabler. Your opinion, mine. Life goes on.
UPDATE: Medical Examiner Takes The Stand In Byron Smith Murder Trial
The defense also noted that there were 66 cuts on Kiefer’s body. The medical examiner said that the cuts on Kiefer’s body were all in different stages of healing. Mills said it is possible that the cuts were self inflicted.
Mills also stated that marijuana and 1,300 nanograms per milliliter of dextromethorpan were found in Kiefer’s urine. Dextromethorpan is a cough suppressant that can be bought over the counter. Mills said it is possible that Kiefer was abusing the cough suppressant based on her toxicology results. Mills testified that Kiefer was intoxicated at the time of her death.
So Miss Girl Next door, the one that roams the back roads of America looking for stuff to steal, was crazy enough to cut herself. Yeah, she's a sweetheart.
But it is not "potatoes potatoes."
Theft and coldblooded murder are different crimes.
Finishing off wounded teenage girls shows such courage and strength of character.
Your parents must be very proud.
Byron Smith had several inches, at least 50 pounds on her, and was armed.
The "unarmed" girl can also pull a knife or gun from concealment.
He put down his rifle and dragged her, bleeding from a gutshot and a chest wound, onto a tarp so he could spare his basement carpet.
Then he turned his back to her.
He left the room to find a gun that he could use at closer range for his enjoyment.
When he got back he leaned over her, looked into her face, whispered "b!tch" to her, then put a handgun under her chin and pulled the trigger.
I would not have taken a chance.
Of course not.
I would have shot her as soon as I saw her,
That's what Smith did, center mass, right in her abdomen.
and would have put enough bullets into her that I was sure she would stay down
That's what Smith did. After she collapsed onto his floor, he shot her twice more, in the chest.
while I called police
Although Smith knew they were in his house at least five full minutes before they even figured out he was home, he didn't call the police until the next day.
Even down, she would still have the potential ability to draw a concealed gun and shoot me as long as she was alive.
He seemed very confident that this was not the case. He took the time to drag her onto a tarp, and then he turned his back on her while he went looking for another weapon, even though he still had ammunition in his rifle.
Thanks for an excellent and balanced post.
I've worked for everything I own as well.
I hate being robbed as much as the next guy.
But my hard work and my zeal for my property rights haven't turned me into so much of a moron that I think thieves are worse than rapists or murderers.
Nor has it made me such an imbecile that I think my own personal feelings are externally verifiable facts.
BYRON SMITH TRIAL: Brady shot 3 times, Kifer 6; prosecution rests
The third and final gunshot into Brady’s head was proven fatal and had passed through the back of his hand. Kifer was killed with the fifth gunshot before the sixth and final “finishing shot” as Smith had earlier described.
sheep say that sometimes.
Make that convictions/plea bargains and I agree. An arrest is equivalent to an accusation, and being simply accused shouldn't be the threshold for invoking higher punishment - that is a recipe for a catastrophe, IMO.
This isn’t the first time that there were OVER-ZEALOUS district attorneys and judges. This happens all the time in New Mexico. When a person shoots an intruder in his property, because the intruder, or intruders, were going to rob him, it’s always the person that was defending his property that will be put on trial. I have suggested to everyone, that if you shoot an intruder, in your property, trying to rob you, just shoot the perp dead, wrap him up in plastic, put him in your car and dump him in some wooded area. And “SHUT UP ABOUT IT” Eventually, their bones will be discovered, but no one will know what happened to them. Just think about it. You’ve saved the county lots of money. “NO TRIAL, NO HOSPITAL BILLS, NO BILLS FOR ENCARCERATION. NOTHING” And most important, “YOU’VE GOTTEN RID OF “VERMIN” IN TOUR COUNTY”
So, you’d just sit back and take it then?
Smith did that initially. Then he got grumpy and fed up on the same day.
I appreciate the fact they won’t trespass, break-and-enter, burglarize, vandalize, do drugs or spread their drug-robbery racket to other teens ever again. Sounds like Mr. Smith did the community a huge favor.
First clue: don’t trespass against others.
Ansel, you are quite right. There is a third category beside wolf and sheep.
Sheepdog. Best described here. Be proud.
http://mwkworks.com/onsheepwolvesandsheepdogs.html
Eh, parents proud.....? if someone broke in and I shot them, I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t shoot 8-9 times. But if I lived and the burglar died, I’m fairly certain they’d be ok with that.
People living way out in he country usually do so for a reason. If they hunt, then they know how to set up an ambush or lair in order to rid themselves of predators.
The little POSs could have killed them but got caught instead. They would’ve eventually screwed up and maybe hurt some other old person and now they are retired from robbing. He did the community a favor and the other little maggot that was a look out should be charged with murder. If the old guy is charged.
And he will be able to bask in your approval while spending the rest of his life in jail.
Sheep dogs talk wolves into leaving, right.
In some situations you are either a Hunter or a prey. With minimal police in a rural environment I’d suspect the numerous burglaries were a warning that maybe the “sheepdogs” were at the donut shop stuffing they’re faces.
I don’t need a sheep dog. I don’t mind having police, but in a crime you’re on your own for the first few minutes to an hour. You better be able to defend yourself. If you think a sheepdog will be there, well good luck with that.
So much for the rule of law, right??? Just because you have a gun and use it doesn’t mean that you are moral, or conservative, or on the right side of the law, whether you are in your house or not — especially after you pump those unnecessary fatal shots into a helpless teenage girl laying on the floor beneath you struggling to breathe.
We know he says he was a previous victim.
I have no problem with shooting a criminal breaking into your home who startles you
He wasn't startled in the slightest. He had them on CCTV from the moment they walked up his driveway. They were the ones who were startled to find him home: he was patiently waiting for them for hours.
beyond the fact that I think he’s a danger only to criminals, probably
Maybe. If he's out on the streets scot free, I wonder what would happen if someone go into a fender bender with him, or had a property line dispute with him.
they chose not to take advantage of those opportunities.
Oh, I agree with you.
When you trespass onto someone's property, you have no way of knowing whether they are a normal person or a psychopath.
For all they knew, they were about to spend the next ten years in a dungeon or have a creepy old man take his sweet time killing them.
They knowingly took their lives into their own hands.
I have no particular problem with him shooting them. He had no particular way to know whether they were armed or not.
I have a big problem with his coming back some time later and deciding to finish off the wounded. As I said, this is a war crime under US military law and is punished as such, as it should be.
Is there some reason you think civilian Americans should be held to a lower standard of conduct than our soldiers dealing with enemy wounded on the battlefield?
Sheepdogs don't talk to the wolves. They kill 'em, or do whatever else is necessary to stop them from harming the sheep.
Smith, IMO, was functioning as a sheepdog when he defended his home against intruders. Then he decided to become a wolf by finishing off the wounded for no particular reason except to express his own anger.
You better be able to defend yourself.
Quite true. Was Smith "defending himself" when he finished off a dying teenage girl?
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