[Crimson Dynamo]

18+ please


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





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

[Me. I Am Salman]

liveleak doesn't work for me anywhere else?

[Z]

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..

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Salman!

liveleak doesn't work for me anywhere else?

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/

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Z

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..

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

[Z]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

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.

[LikeABoatOnWater]

you enter my house and your getting killed.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by LikeABoatOnWater

you enter my house and your getting killed.

I take it you dont have many dinner parties?

[smudgie]

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.

[MTVN]

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

[Crimson Dynamo]

his career was installing security systems at Embassies

[Tom4784]

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.

[arista]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

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/

Yes Pre-Planned Murder
Evil

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by arista

Yes Pre-Planned Murder
Evil

what should he have done?

[Nedusa]

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.

[Kizzy]

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

[Livia]

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.

[Kizzy]

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

[arista]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

what should he have done?

Got the Police

[Marsh.]

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.

[InOne]

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.

[Marsh.]

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

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by 08marsh

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.

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

[Livia]

"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.

[Jordan.]

Could have moved or actually reported them