Minnesota man who killed teens in break-in charged with murder

[NIUhuskies]

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.
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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.

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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

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

This part is a little alarming.

It seems like a kid like that would be handy if you're a criminal.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by unlurking

*note to self: stay away from rain man's house*

(Staring at unlurking while sharpening knife on a razor strop.)

[bowener]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

This part is a little alarming.

No shit! He keeps a child on hand to siphon gas for him. One ****ed fugger.

[Aries Walker]

Shooting two unarmed kids who are breaking into your house again is possibly defensible in court, but executing them while they lie helpless on the floor is not. The kids were delinquents and crooks and bad people all around, but by the time they had a few bullets in them, they were no longer a threat to the guy. He blew their brains out anyway.

He's a sick twisted murderer and should go to jail forever.

[Xanathol]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

Shooting two unarmed kids who are breaking into your house again is possibly defensible in court, but executing them while they lie helpless on the floor is not. The kids were delinquents and crooks and bad people all around, but by the time they had a few bullets in them, they were no longer a threat to the guy. He blew their brains out anyway.

He's a sick twisted murderer and should go to jail forever.

Because the justice system did such a good job in the prior incidents to make sure they didn't do it again... Chances are in the state of things today, if he didn't kill them, they not only aren't arrested but file suit against him for harming them and take his belongings through another screwed up liberal court system...

If you decide to inflict a crime on someone, **** "your rights" - you just forfeited them and get what you deserve, as these piece of shit teenagers did. The man should get an award for removing them from society instead of a court date.

[teedubya]

Neither teen was armed. And in the minutes after the shootings, Smith dragged the bodies into a workshop, where they remained until a neighbor called police the next day.

I think this is why he's going down.

[fairladyZ]

so he's in the wrong for killing them.

Except if he would have let them live and they come back and sue him for damages caused and inflicted for him shooting them the guy suffers even more.

this is why you shoot to kill, period. burglars have sued for less, falling on a kitchen knife during a burglary and so on.

shitty deal all around but the guy wasn't in the wrong. Only thing he should have handled different is calling the police right away.

[Aries Walker]

You can't execute someone because you're afraid they'll sue you if you don't. You also can't execute someone because you're afraid they'll rob your house again, even after you've already crippled them. You also can't blow a helpless person's head off. I mean, what the hell.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

You can't execute someone because you're afraid they'll sue you if you don't. You also can't execute someone because you're afraid they'll rob your house again, even after you've already crippled them. You also can't blow a helpless person's head off. I mean, what the hell.

You should be able to execute an intruder in your own home.

[EagleRob]

Two of the three sociopaths involved are dead. How bout the third?

[Gravedigger]

The funny thing is all of you who are standing up for him are taking him at his word, seeing as he's the only one left alive that could tell the story. If I'm a police officer, I'm thinking he killed these kids and then made up the bullshit story to cover it instead of trying to dispose of the bodies. Any man who is willing to say ,"I wanted him dead." is willing to do anything he can to kill him. Maybe this kid ****ed with his property in the past so he had a beef, but are you honestly believing him that the kid laughed as he stepped up to her and then bent down to execute her? You really think a person who has just been shot would laugh before the final bullet goes in? Bet money that the girl was begging for her life, if his story up until that point was true, and he put her out of her misery instead of trying to get her help. Sounds like a crazy old cooner who tried to fasten together a story that has more holes in it than Prometheus. The only way that kid laughed as she lied there dying on his basement floor is if she was high on some crazy ass shit and I've never seen a drug's effects that a teenager can get ahold of that would take the fear of death out of them.

[BigMeatballDave]

I think there is more to this.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by jspchief

You should be able to execute an intruder in your own home.

Yes, but not like this guy did.

[Aries Walker]

Originally Posted by jspchief

You should be able to execute an intruder in your own home.

No, you should not. Threaten, attack, defeat, repel, neutralize, sure - but once that intruder is no longer a threat (say, because they're lying, bleeding on the floor from multiple gunshot wounds), you cannot gangland-style bullet-through-the-cranium execute anyone.

[Gravedigger]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

No, you should not. Threaten, attack, defeat, repel, neutralize, sure - but once that intruder is no longer a threat (say, because they're lying, bleeding on the floor from multiple gunshot wounds), you cannot gangland-style bullet-through-the-cranium execute anyone.

And then admit to it boldly in front of the cops? Yeah, guys crazy as hell.