USA: BREAKING - Audio Clips Released From Execution of Two Teen Intruders
 

18+ please


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f1f_1398904305



http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncsta....jpg?ve=1&tl=1

TTLE FALLS, Minn. The Little Falls, Minn. man who shot and killed two teenagers after they broke into his home has been found guilty of all four counts of premeditated murder.

After roughly three hours of deliberation, the jury found 65-year-old Byron Smith guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder for the shooting deaths of 18-year-old Haile Kifer and 17-year-old Nick Brady.

Mothers of the teens cried as the verdicts were read, while Smith showed no emotion. He was immediately sentenced to life without parole.

Defense attorney Steve Meshbesher said he would appeal. He said the jury didn’t see all of the evidence, including Facebook photos of Brady with guns. He said he wants to take the case to the Supreme Court.

The prosecution said despite getting a guilty verdict, they feel deep sadness for the families of Brady and Kifer.

“There are no winners, only losers in this case,” said Morrison County Attorney Brian Middendorf.

Brady’s grandmother, Bonnie Schaeffel, was among family members who addressed the court after the verdicts were given.

“He seems a sour, angry old recluse who felt he was above the law,” Schaeffel said. “He chose to be cop, judge, jury and executioner.”

Kifer’s aunt, Laurie Skipper, read a statement from her niece’s parents: “Byron Smith made a conscious choice to shoot and kill our beautiful daughter Haile. … The feelings of helplessness are overwhelming.”

Smith’s brother, Bruce, walked past reporters afterward without comment.

The two cousins were shot multiple times after they broke into Smith’s home on Thanksgiving Day in 2012.

Smith claimed he was defending himself and feared for his life after several break-ins at his home. However, the prosecution argued he planned to take their lives and waited for them to come downstairs, armed with guns, as if he was hunting them. A total of nine shots were fired at the two teens.

In court on Monday, Smith waived his right to testify in his own defense. The final witnesses in the trial included Smith’s family and the neighbors he has lived with for the past year and a half. They testified that Smith is an honest man.

Smith’s attorney, Steve Meshbesher, argued the teens would be alive if they hadn’t chosen to commit a burglary.

The killings stunned Little Falls, a central Minnesota community of 8,000, 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 the trial begged the question, “How far is too far?”

Smith set up a hand-held recorder on a bookshelf, which captured audio of the shootings — key evidence in the prosecution’s case. Smith had also installed a surveillance system that recorded images of Brady trying to enter the house.

The audio recording of the shootings was played during the trial and again, during the closing arguments. In the recording, Smith can be heard firing multiple shots at Brady and telling him, “you’re dead.” Prosecutors said Smith put Brady’s body on a tarp and dragged him into another room, then sat down, reloaded his weapon and waited.

About 10 minutes later, Kifer came downstairs. More shots are heard on the recording, then Kifer’s screams, with Smith saying, “You’re dying.” It’s followed soon after by another shot, which investigators said Smith described as “a good, clean finishing shot.”

The teens were unarmed, but Smith’s attorneys had said he feared they had a weapon.

The tape continued to run, and Smith was heard referring to the teens as “vermin.” Smith waited a full day before asking a neighbor to call police.

Before retiring from the U.S. State Department, Smith worked on technical security issues for American embassies, such as building layout and alarms.

Kifer was a senior who was active in athletics at Little Falls High School. Brady was a student and a wrestler at that school before transferring to nearby Pillager High School, where he was a junior.

Court documents that were not allowed as evidence showed Brady had broken into Smith’s house and garage before. Brady and Kifer were also linked to another burglary the day before they were killed; stolen prescription drugs were found in the car they were driving.
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=df2_1...EuXPJB7FRuW.99

liveleak doesn't work for me :( anywhere else?

Dunno how to feel about this case - wouldn't want to listen to those audio tapes, would have been difficult to hear that... those teenagers were committing burglaries though, it's not like they were innocent..

Details here but you dont get the audio that the perp recorded of him killing the teens

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/21...-them-in-turn/

The audio takes him beyond defending against intrusion and smacks of preplanned murder or at least that is what it seems the jury thought

I should probably go listen to the audio but I don't really wanna listen to people's last moments... just seems like an odd verdict; I mean it does sound like he went way beyond the stand your ground concept, but if they broke into his home then they broke into his home... troubling.

you enter my house and your getting killed.

I take it you dont have many dinner parties?

Guilty of murder.
Sounds a good conclusion, he was hardly in fear if he killed one then calmly sat and waited for the other one to come downstairs.

Well its tragic all round really I guess, it does seem like he's a very cold guy who took the conscious decision he was always gonna kill them, but on the other hand when you break into someone's house you're always at risk of being the victim of something like this because you're instilling a sense of fear in people, and when they don't feel safe in their own homes they're gonna be scared and lash out

I'm not saying that breaking in deserves death, it obviously doesn't, but I'm not sure whether premeditated murder is an appropriate charge here

his career was installing security systems at Embassies

I won't listen to the audio but it sounds like it was the right verdict from the description. He had a tarp ready for the bodies so it's obvious it was all preplanned. If he was calm enough to set all that up he was calm enough to defend himself without having to kill them.

Yes Pre-Planned Murder
Evil

what should he have done?

Breaking into someones house especially in the States is a very risky thing to do as the laws in most states allow homeowners to shoot intruders in self defence.

However the law does not give you the right having found people in your house to execute them in any way you see fit.

I accept that they should not have been there and that this homeowner had been terrorised by these burglars or that he may have had a moment of madness BUT as the evidence shows he decided after incapacitating these intruders to execute or finish them off.

This key evidence I guess was the homeowners own audio recordings where he clearly made the step from self defence to retribution and murder.

Life without parole, guess he won't have to worry about ever being burgled again.

I haven't listened either, what about the 'right to bear arms thing'?

If they hadn't broken into his house he wouldn't have killed them. If you've broken in you're fair game, I reckon. Break into my house while I'm there and I promise you that you're going out feet first.

But then there's reasonable force, is killing someone proportional?... The goalposts seem to move on this one here, so no idea how they assess it over there with their gun laws :shrug:

Got the Police

He'd already incapacitated them and then afterwards decided to go ahead and kill them. He didn't kill them in self defence regardless of the burglary.

The right to bear arms is about your right to defend yourself, that's not what he was doing. He was taking out his own punishment through execution.

The audio is quite chilling but I've listened to worse. He did seem quite cold and methodical with the way he killed them but at the end of the day, they broke in. Losers all round as it says in the article.

Breaking in doesn't mean they are free to be callously executed.

Ah I see... Then yes I can totally see why this verdict, Anyone who advocates vigilantism has no respect for the law.

"Smith claimed he was defending himself and feared for his life after several break-ins at his home."

Having several break-ins at your home I think may per a person under an enormous amount of pressure. I'm really surprised no one's wondering about the man's state of mind when yet another pair broke into his home.

Could have moved or actually reported them :umm2:

just heard it, it's horrible :( throw away the key for sure

how is there audio clips did he record it and why and how did they get it. seems so strange.

That was like a horror movie , evil , yes they are breaking in and if you break in to someones home you got to expect to maybe be killed or hurt they must of known that before they done it. . but even so thats evil the guy is deranged. you can tell by what he says espec at the end completely psycho mental.

very tough call though as if someone is breaking in to your home , you dont know what they might do. in this case though complete psycho

p.s i hate those people speaking god awful

Yeah he set up a recording device I think which is where the audio comes from....it is chilling and the fact that when they are obviously wounded he obviously goes closer to I'll them and says "you're dead" and "you're gonna die" etc takes away the fearing for his life part...

If he had shot to wound fair enough, they would be the ones behind bars and rightly so but from these tapes that's not the case

he was pushed to the limit and bearing in mind his career he was probably a lot lot more sensitive to danger. the 2 punks should not be breaking into elderly peoples homes

he should not have taped the executions and he would have been ok

It's horrific, like something from a horror film! He was not sounding like a victim there at all.

"There are some lessons in this story. Use a big enough gun so you only need to shoot the intruders once, don't have an audio recorder running, and call 911 right away afterwards. No indictment, no jury trial, no life in prison. And probably very few future intruders either. He just did this all wrong."

how does this comment i have taken form an american news site scan with tibbers?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...icle-1.1773270

I don't give a crap if they did invade his home, still doesn't give him the right to murder them.

Because that's what he did, murdered them.

He says he was defending himself and feared for his life yet he moved his truck away from the house and hid in the basement so it appeared no one was home. He clearly wanted them to break in so he could kill them.

Totally agree!
If your life is in direct danger and it's you or them then that's one thing but that obviously wasn't the circumstance in this case!

Loads of teenage kids (or eve pre-teens) get involved with bad crowds and often dabble in burglary so all these people saying "they deserved it", if that was your kids would you be fine with this guy doing what he did to your children ? :nono:

I agree, all this mans actions look like a hunter setting a trap for his prey.

Moving his truck, turning off all lights yet keep surveillance equipment operating, staying awake all night with loaded weapons ready all of this suggests he was seeking retribution and taking the audio evidence into account this was certainly premeditated murder.

He was found guilty and rightly so...maybe a few more gun happy, trigger happy homeowners in the states may re-evaluate what they can and cannot do in the event of catching a burglar on their property.

That sounds like excellent advice to me. I'll bear it in mind if someone breaks into my house because there's no way they'd be walking out.

It reminds me of that 'sleeping with the enemy' scene when she shoots her husband.

..I did finally listen to the audio, it's extremely disturbing..'I don't see them as human'...I can understand how he must have felt extremely frustrated and upset by past break-ins and how the two young people were doing wrong..but whatever happened in the past and whatever was happening at that moment, I don't believe you can be 'pushed' into evil unless evil is already there and I think it's good and totally the right verdict to remove that evil from harming anyone else...an extremely disturbed individual..

..there is a difference between breaking the law and doing wrong which is what they did and being a hate filled person and acting on that hate by extinguishing life then feeling a sense of 'cleansing..'....