Little Falls man describes 'finishing' teenagers with shots to heads

pioneer press ^ | 11-26-12 | Joseph Lindberg

[TurboZamboni]

A man who killed two teenagers in his home in Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day told investigators he shot and wounded the two at close range before "finishing" them with shots to the head.

Byron David Smith, 64, was charged Monday, Nov. 26, in Morrison County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder without premeditation in the deaths of Nicholas Brady, 17, and his cousin Haile Kifer, 18.

Smith claims Brady and Kifer broke into his home and he was "fearful" they had weapons, according to the criminal complaint.

[Uncle Chip]

Retired government employee with the State Department. Does that answer your question???

[ought-six]

Bad move. He was okay with the first shots, but the “finishing them off” routine was murder. He is toast, and rightfully so.

[sitetest]

The “finishing” shots seem to demonstrate premeditation. If the story holds up as reported so far, this fellow should be executed. He is a cold-blooded murderer.

[tomkat]

And that acre seems slightly less idyllic once you've hit the thirtieth mowing of the year and there's another month or two left before autumn.

And then let's talk about the leaves from a dozen BIG trees ..

[TomasUSMC]

??? All my shots will be finishing shots until its finished.

[Venturer]

He saved us the cost of a trial for the two kids he killed, but now we will have to feed and clothe him.

The old Double tap doesn’t work in this case.

[GeronL]

That is how real home invaders should be treated though

[DesertRhino]

You should read the article. He is sitting in the basement, and shoots them with a .223 as they come down the stairs.
(according to him, the boy comes down the stairs and he shoots him twice with a mini-14. Then he drags the body away. Then he says the girl comes down the stairs into the same basement where the 223 has just been fired twice, indoors. O-kkkk, i believe that)
But that could probably still be ok, even if many people could have handled it better.

But then he says the girl laughed at him. (Thats in his estimation). Thats right, the 18 year old girl punched from 10 feet with a .223, seeing her dead companion/bf with his head splattered with a 223, giggled at him. (i suppose anything is -possible-on some level)
So he gets a .22 pistol, and shoots her numerous times in the chest.
He drags her across the floor and lays her beside where he already dragged the boy he shot. He sees she is still gasping to breathe. So he puts the 22 under her chin and does a “good clean finishing shot”.

Then he waits another day before calling the cops.
Creepy ba$tard -should- be toast.

[Hot Tabasco]

The two teenagers broke into his home to steal something to support their drug habit.<>

Whose story was that, Byron Smith's?

[BerryDingle]

The man is lying. The investigators will eventually release the whole story. This man would save his community a lot of time and trouble by hanging himself in prison.

I tend to agree with you. Smith appears mentally unbalanced to me and those 2 kids don't appear stupid enough to break in anywhere uninvited.

[GeronL]

Murder?

Just a little euthanasia, mercy killing.

Oh, right, thats when the government comes in and does the exact same thing.

[narses]

There is almost surely more to this story. Based on this article, murder one charges are appropriate.

[sjm_888]

I think that picture at the twin city site is incorrect. I think the house, as you look at the picture, is on the right. maps.google.com the address and check it yourself.

[GeronL]

If he invited them over for Thanksgiving or something, he is definitely deranged

senile?

He should blame Parkison’s or something. heh. I’m sure he will have back up reasons. Or his lawyer will.

[Jim from C-Town]

This guy is a true knucklehead. This sounds really suspicious to me. I believe that it would be more believable that he invited or persuaded these teens into his house in order to murder them.

He moved the bodies, hid his crime for a full day, and has a really bad cover story.

[Paladin2]

"the property of the man blew my mind."

Seriously, Stay off the lawn.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Looks like he shot them from ambush and then coldly murdered them.

[driftdiver]

An earlier story - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2963089/posts

A quote from that article “She said that Kifer had been in treatment more than once for abuse of controlled substances, and speculated that her cousin might have been after pills. Kifer had recently returned to school and had been trying to straighten out her life, Shaeffel said, adding that Kifer had stolen Adderall pills from Shaeffel’s home.”

He shot them in his basement. How’d they get there? It was the 8th time someone had broken into his home.

[Uncle Chip]

A few minutes later, Smith again heard footsteps above him -- and just as Brady had done, Kifer came down the stairs and was shot by Smith, sending her tumbling down the stairs.

This is the part of the story that I have a hard time with.

The house is not that big and surely the girl would have heard the shots in the basement.

Why didn't she run as fast and as far as her little feet could carry her out of the house???

Why would she go down into the basement where the shots came from???

Something about this doesn't sound right.

He may have caught them breaking into his house upstairs and then brought them downstairs and executed them. He's that crazy.

[driftdiver]

He should called 911 and let the cops do their paperwork. Then he wouldn’t be looking at life.