Posted on 04/14/2014 9:19:20 AM PDT by Gumdrop
The trial of a Little Falls man accused of fatally shooting two teenagers who broke into his house gets underway with jury selection today.
65-year-old Byron Smith faces two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Haile Kifer and Nicholas Brady. Smith is accused of killing the unarmed cousins after they broke into his house north of Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day 2012. http://www.wjon.com/tags/byron/smith/
html://www.wjon.com/tags/byron-smith/
(Excerpt) Read more at wjon.com ...
Three links. None of them work.
Try this one: wjon.com/tags/byron-smith/
I remember this case. It would be like two teenage boys breaking into John Wayne Gacy’s house. The homeowner even went back to the already injured teen girl and shot her under the chin because he wanted a clean shot to end her suffering.
He then rolled them up in carpeting and kept the bodies for awhile until he asked a neighbor about recommending a lawyer.
remember this case. It would be like two teenage boys breaking into John Wayne Gacy’s house. The homeowner even went back to the already injured teen girl and shot her under the chin because he wanted a clean shot to end her suffering.
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I remember it also. There’s a difference between self-defense and premeditated execution.
Did he call 911? Did he think to get an ambulance?
No.
He turned his back to her, went and found a different weapon, then came back and leisurely finished her off at close quarters.
Then he packaged her up and made himself some dinner.
This thing isn't even human.
Picked the wrong house.
That puts an entirely different light on it.
Unarmed is irrelevant if they broke into his house - so leave that emotional rhetoric out of it - but finishing off the wounded girl, who was no threat at that point, was waaaaay over the top.
It is relevant.
If you severely wound an intruder, but he is armed, you are likely justified in shooting him again because you fear that he is still able to use his weapon even if he is injured.
But if someone is lying on your floor, unarmed and gutshot, then we're not dealing with self-defense anymore.
And he picked the wrong response, so he will die in either prison or a mental hospital.
Indeed.
The homeowner definitely took things too far in this case but I have zero sympathy for the dead house burglars. Breaking into somebody's home is about the most despicable crime one can commit.
Yep we covered that here — I was wondering when it would go to trial:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/littlefalls/index
Could this guy's callous disregard for human life have anything to do with where he had spent the last 30 years working.
doesn’t first degree indicate premeditation???how does one plan to murder a home invader??
When the home invader is leaning against a wall, wounded, bleeding, incapacitated and in need of an ambulance, but instead of calling 911, the homeowner thinks about it, goes into the other room for another gun, then returns, puts the gun to the head of the helpless person and blows her brains out.
That's how -- it's called Murder 1.
You obviously didn’t read all of what I wrote.
Unarmed is NOT relevant regarding shooting an intruder. Killing an incapacitated intruder IS relevant. Which is what I said originally.
Unarmed, teenage, girl - are all irrelevant facts - unarmed, teenager, girl or not, she was invading his home and therefor legally subject to lethal force.
Once she was incapacitated - whether initially armed or not - further deadly action is uncalled for and indefensible. Incapacitated is the relevant fact. He shot to death an incapacitated, criminal intruder.
Frankly, the guy’s story about shooting the boy a couple of times, then wrapping the body in a tarp and sitting back down in his chair until the girl came down the stairs a few minutes later doesn’t sound right. I find myself wondering if he caught the two breaking in, marched them at gunpoint into the basement and executed them both. It will be interesting to hear what the physical evidence of bullet holes, etc. has to say.
What is more damning is the guy’s own words:
“If you’re trying to shoot somebody and they laugh at you, you go again,”
He also acknowledged firing “more shots than I needed to.”
Smith said he dragged Kifer into the workshop. But when he realized she was still alive, he shot her “under the chin up into the cranium”.
He described that action as “a good clean finishing shot” because he wanted to end her suffering.
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