What if instead of threatening to kill them, the intruder, who
apparently broke in unarmed, saw their guns and yelled "Please don't shoot!". It still isn't 1st degree murder, but it isn't commendable either.
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For the record - the intruder actually broke though the wall of these defendants' warehouse with a sledgehammer. You might want to say he did not have a gun, but he certainly was carrying a weapon.
A fact of which I was not privy. Still, he may have dropped the sledgehammer and yelled "Please don't shoot!". A reasonable thing for even a bludgeon-armed criminal to do when faced with two people armed with guns.