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11-27-2012, 04:56 PM | |
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Minnesota man who killed teens in break-in charged with murder
wow, this sounds pretty messed up... Cant tell if his guy is nuts or if these kids were on drugs
By NBC News staff and wire services A 64-year-old Minnesota man was charged Monday with murder for killing two teenagers who he said broke into his Little Falls home, shooting them in the head, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. AP file Byron David Smith was arrested after he told police he shot and killed two teenagers who he said were breaking into his home on Thanksgiving Day. "If you're trying to shoot somebody and they laugh at you, you go again," Byron David Smith of Little Falls told investigators, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday. Smith was charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Haile Kifer, 18, and her cousin, Nicholas Brady, 17, both of Little Falls. The teens were shot on Thanksgiving Day, but their deaths weren't reported until Friday. Advertise | AdChoices Brady has also used the name Schaeffel, which is his mother’s maiden name, at times for family reasons, according to the sheriff's office. In the criminal complaint, Smith said he was in the basement of his remote home about 10 miles southwest of Little Falls when he heard a window breaking upstairs, followed by footsteps that eventually approached the basement stairwell. Fearful after several break-ins, according to the complaint, Smith said he fired when Brady came into view from the waist down. After the teen fell down the stairs, Smith said he shot him in the face as he lay on the floor. "I want him dead," the complaint quoted Smith telling an investigator. Smith said he dragged Brady's body into his basement workshop, then sat back down on his chair, and after a few minutes Kifer began coming down the stairs. He said he shot her as soon as her hips appeared, and she fell down the steps. Smith said he tried to shoot her again with his Mini 14 rifle, but that the gun jammed and Kifer laughed at him. "Smith stated that it was not a very long laugh because she was already hurting," according to the complaint. Smith said he then shot Kifer in the chest several times with a .22-caliber revolver, dragged her next to Brady, and with her still gasping for air, fired a shot under her chin "up into the cranium." "Smith described it as 'a good clean finishing shot,'" according to the compliant, but also that he acknowledged he had fired "more shots than (he) needed to." The following day he asked a neighbor to recommend a good lawyer, according to the complaint. He later asked his neighbor to call the police. A prosecutor called Smith's reaction "appalling." "Mr. Smith intentionally killed two teenagers in his home in a matter that goes well beyond self-defense," Morrison County Attorney Brian Middendorf said after Smith appeared at Morrison County District Court on Monday morning. Bail was set at $2 million. Follow @NBCNewsUS Minnesota law allows a homeowner to use deadly force on an intruder if a reasonable person would fear they're in danger of harm. Smith told investigators he was afraid the intruders might have a weapon. Smith's actions "sound like an execution" rather than legitimate self-defense, said David Pecchia, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association. Pecchia said his statements to investigators suggest he had eliminated any threat to his safety by wounding the cousins. Smith's brother, Bruce Smith, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that the incident was the eighth burglary at Byron Smith's home in recent years. The only report the Morrison County sheriff's office has for a break-in at the home was for one on Oct. 27. It shows Byron Smith reported losing cash and gold coins worth $9,200, plus two guns worth $200 each, photo equipment worth more than $3,000 and a ring worth $300. Little Falls is about 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Brady's sister, Crystal Schaeffel, told the Star Tribune that Kifer had broken into her home before. Little Falls police records show Crystal Schaeffel reported a theft Aug. 28, but the department said the report was not public because that investigation was continuing and because it named juveniles. Tessa Ruth, an aunt of Brady, attended Smith's hearing. She told the Star Tribune she wished the man had fired a warning shot or alerted the police instead of shooting the teens. "It wasn't right for them to be there and, yes, he had a right to defend himself. But to execute them like that..." http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...th-murder?lite |
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11-28-2012, 10:24 AM | #76 |
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If they were breaking and entering, yeah, you have to expect bad things and they had no excuse.
But this guy still went way over the line, dragging half dead people around and then "finishing" them as they gasp and weeze. What a sad, sick story. |
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11-28-2012, 10:34 AM | #77 | |
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11-28-2012, 10:34 AM | #78 | |
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I told my wife that anyone that breaks into our house will end up dead because I don't want to worry about them coming back wanting revenge. |
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11-28-2012, 10:35 AM | #79 |
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11-28-2012, 10:50 AM | #80 |
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Well, I don't guess anyone will break into his next apartment but he is likely to have an annoying roommate.
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11-28-2012, 11:55 AM | #81 | |
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Are you willing to bet your life they don't have a weapon they'll use on you once you turn your back to look for the other intruder? Are you willing to risk your life to the other intruder by spending precious seconds searching the one you just shot? When do you absolutely know you've removed a threat? If actions were taken while fearing his life or safety it shouldn't matter if we now think it's "too far". Moving the bodies with out necessity or reason is tampering with a crime scene, not calling the authorities as soon as safely possible doesn't do the guy any favors either. The "finishing shot" on the girl makes my stomach cringe like any normal person would. But the "wanting him dead" for the first intruder, doesn't bother me as much. Still another person in the house, he's probably still fearing his safety and he doesn't want to worry about this guy shot in the leg or hips getting back up and getting back in the fight. |
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11-28-2012, 11:55 AM | #82 |
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Of course they are going to show the pic of her when she was looking good. Not the girl who was going to an alternative school and probably strung out on meth.
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11-28-2012, 11:57 AM | #83 |
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Yeah, that one doesn't really pass the BS detector. Something is very fishy about this whole thing. I'll be there's a lot more to this story.
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11-28-2012, 11:59 AM | #84 | ||
Wasted away again...
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11-28-2012, 12:01 PM | #85 |
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Hey, chin up. He could still get the death penalty
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11-28-2012, 12:04 PM | #86 |
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11-28-2012, 12:04 PM | #87 | |
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However, I wouldn't be moving bodies or not calling the police, I also might word my statement to not sound so emotionally detached as a human being either. |
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11-28-2012, 12:06 PM | #88 | |
Wasted away again...
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11-28-2012, 12:08 PM | #89 |
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This. The dude was obviously incapacitated enough that the old guy could drag him around. He could have easily secured him.
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11-28-2012, 12:18 PM | #90 | ||
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I don't disagree it's possible, and I don't disagree this guy is a nut. but what are you securing him with? got some rope handy? handcuffs? You know before hand that the second person isn't coming down right away? It ended up that the second person didn't come down right away, but you can't afford to take that chance to tie someone up. And even if you search him and find nothing on him, he could find your other gun downstairs if you turn your back on him. a pipe, a table leg, old lamp, etc. He could be yelling to his friend upstairs, giving information about the layout, your weapons, that you don't have a phone to call the police, etc. Too many possible bad scenarios for me personally. If I know someone else is in the house, I'm eliminating one threat, trying to call for back up in some way if I can, and watching the fatal funnel that is the entrance to the basement and shooting anything I don't recognize coming down the steps. I don't care about taking prisoners in that case. Anyway, just saying the kill shot on the first guy doesn't turn my stomach upside down as much as everyone else. given what we think we know about what happened, or what was reported to have happened. |
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