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 ...
It seems obvious, but, you know, we have such a respect for Life and Christian values around here, I don’t think your point is going to get through.
And the problem with that is?
Cute kids, sad story.
The home owner is correct.
So the police had several opportunities to catch the thugs breaking into this man’s house and they failed to do so?
He certainly is.
These two are dead because of their own willful criminal acts.
No break and enter, no dead.
I guess it would have been better if he had just shot her 100 times to begin with like a cop would have.
Did he force them to break into his home?
The penalty for home burglary is 10 years incarceration not death by psychopath.
I have no problem with someone shooting a person who has broken into their house.
But what you describe goes well beyond the definition of excessive. If you shoot someone in defense of yourself and your property, it needs to stop at the point where the threat has been eliminated. This guy basically “bounced the rubble”, and if the girl was still alive when that last shot was taken it goes from “self-defense” clear past “murder” and right into “execution”
I don’t carry that much ammo, idiot.
“My Father did this after 3 break-ins at our pharmacy. He sat in a chair in the dark and waited night after night, thankfully, I finally convinced him to get a taser instead of taking his gun. In the end, after a night there was an attempted break-in when he was not there, the police set up a trap the following night and got the would be burglar. Guess what? No conviction... Probation, no jail time, and no repayment of damages to our business. And this is going on with the police station in the same building literally 3 doors down, less than 25 yards away, from our business. Drugs were the reason, and addiction. But can you imagine the idiocy?”
Years ago I had my medical offices broken into twice within a month. Unbelievably they caught the guy(a druggie/alcoholic) who happened to drop a copy of his probation report( yes, you read it correctly) outside my office with the FIRST break-in. This was his third offense and he stole Rx pads and the local Cleveland DA said mandatory jail time if I was willing to testify. I was very willing to testify. Six months after trial was supposed to start, no call from DA. I call him, he is too busy and his secretary says he got PROBATION. Tried to call the DA back and never got a response.
About one year later watching TV about a horrible story where an elderly lady coming out of a grocery store was knocked down in a robbery and after two weeks in coma has died due to her injuries.
You guessed it, it was my druggie burglar that was supposed to be doing mandatory jail time.
The penalty for breaking into a house is not death — especially when the homeowner has moved his car to make it appear that he was not home, is watching them on video, has a phone next to him with which to call the police, and after disabling them with one shot continues to shoot them because they are “vermin” and he wants to put them out of their misery, rather than calling an ambulance and the police.
And this is a retired State Department security officer.
Maybe I’m a LEO, but I ain’t a lion.
“And this is a retired State Department...”
THAT explains a lot.
Every bad thing that happened that night was a direct result of the bad choices made by the perps...period.
Yeah that’s rich! Prosecutor treating the deceased vermin as victims—and the victim like a criminal.
But hey, that’s how it is in Amerika now.
He parked his truck several blocks away and turned off all of his lights, so anyone would think that he wasn't at home.
He hid downstairs in his basement, with a chair set up between two bookshelves, so he could lie in wait, out of sight of anyone who opened the basement door.
He stocked the space between the bookshelves with bottled water and powerbars so he could stay there for hours.
He purchased several tarps so he could wrap up the bodies.
He could not wait for his house to be broken into and went out of his way to present a tempting target.
Not one thing he did was in the heat of the moment.
It was all carefully planned out.
He claims that he waited more than a day to contact the police because he didn't want to bother them.
I think he was enjoying his trophies before he had to get rid of them.
Sounds like a good plan to me.
Here is the actual law.
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2013 Minnesota Statutes
609.065 JUSTIFIABLE TAKING OF LIFE.
The intentional taking of the life of another is not authorized by section 609.06, except when necessary in resisting or preventing an offense which the actor reasonably believes exposes the actor or another to great bodily harm or death, or preventing the commission of a felony in the actor’s place of abode.
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=609.065
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Here is the actual law.
I am all in favor of good shoots on violent or threatening criminal offenders. The original take down shots are defensible. The subsequent executions were not.
I can see some situations were they would be. Anarchy. War. Remote isolation coupled with other imminent threats. Gangs with backup.
This was a Minnesota suburb.
Manslaughter or diminished capacity is all this guy has got.
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