BYRON SMITH MURDER TRIAL: Minnesota Teenagers Shot Dead During Break-In

[Sphincter Cop]

'We'll never get answers': More than 400 gather for funeral of teens shot dead while stealing from man's basement on Thanksgiving

•Car driven by Nicholas Brady, 17, was spotted at Little Falls, Colorado - while its owner wasn't home - on the day before his death
•House was later found to have been robbed
•Brady was found dead on Friday alongside cousin Haile Kifer, 18
•Byron Smith, 64, charged with second-degree murder 'after telling police he shot more times than necessary because Kifer laughed when his gun jammed'

By Lydia Warren and Associated Press

More than 400 people gathered at a Minnesota church today for the joint funeral of two cousins who were shot to death on Thanksgiving while burglarizing a home.

The deaths of Little Fall teens Haile Kifer, 18, and Nicholas Brady, 17, have stunned the community, who have a lot of unanswered questions about the holiday tragedy.

Rodney Bartkowicz, who said he was a relative of the victims, told Minnesota Public Radio that he remembers Kifer and Brady as 'generally really good kids.

'I know there's a lot of anger right now because of everything that's happening," Bartkowicz said. "I know there's a lot of ... questions why it had to end up like it did. And I don't believe they'll ever really get a true answer, even in the courts.'

Before the burglary was discovered, deputies were called to the neighborhood because a red Mitsubishi Eclipse was spotted in the driveway of a home owned by Richard L. Johnson, Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel said.

Nicholas Brady, 17, had been driving that car, although it wasn't registered to him. Deputies questioned him, but then let him go, Wetzel said.
A day later, Byron Smith shot and killed Brady and Brady's 18-year-old cousin, Haile Kifer, in the basement of his Little Falls home.

Smith told authorities that he disturbed the pair as they tried to break into his house and that he shot them in self-defense.

The same red Mitsubishi Eclipse was discovered Friday parked around the corner from Smith's property.'There are some preliminary indications that the Johnson burglary may have been committed by the Brady boy and the Kifer girl, but it's too early now to say definitively,' Wetzel said, adding that more information could be made available later today.

The Minneapolis StarTribune reported that Johnson, a retired high school teacher, had been in Spain and did not know his home had been burglarized until he returned to the home on Sunday.

Johnson told the paper that he reported several items stolen from his house, including less than $5 in pennies kept in a box on his dresser, silver and copper coins, and some prescription medication, including drugs for diabetes and controlling cholesterol.

Wetzel couldn't immediately say whether any of those missing items were found in Brady's car.

In addition, Johnson reported a sliding glass door that had been broken.


'I do know they found quite a bit of evidence in their vehicle that was parked near the Smith place,' the sheriff said late Tuesday. 'We're trying to investigate whether it might have come from the Johnson burglary.'

Smith, a retired U.S. State Department employee, was charged Monday with two counts of murder. According to the criminal complaint, Smith shot the teens multiple times. He told investigators his home had been broken into several times before.

Minnesota law gives homeowners the right to protect themselves and their property, but Wetzel said they don't have the right to execute an intruder once the threat is neutralized.

Johnson told the Star Tribune: 'The whole thing is very sad that they lost their lives. In the same instance, if they hadn't been breaking into houses, they'd be alive.'

Smith told authorities that he was in his basement last Thursday when he heard a window break upstairs.

Another break-in? A day before they were shot to death in Byron Smith's home, a car driven by Brady was spotted in the driveway of Richard L. Johnson's home in Little Falls

When he saw Brady on the basement stairwell, he fired at the teenager then shot him again in the face after he fell down. The complaint said Smith told an investigator: 'I want him dead.' Smith said he dragged Brady's body into his workshop. When Kifer came down the stairs, he shot her multiple times. He dragged her into the room and as she gasped for air, he fired what he described as a 'good clean finishing shot' under her chin 'up into the cranium,' the complaint said.

Yesterday, Smith admitted that he fired 'more shots than he needed to,' as friends and family of the dead teens expressed outrage over their deaths. On Monday, he was charged with second-degree murder and police revealed he told them he fired more shots than necessary after his gun jammed and Kifer laughed at him.

While Minnesota law stipulates people are allowed to use deadly force when defending their homes, relatives, friends, police and prosecutors claimed Smith reacted too drastically by killing them. 'A person has every right to defend themselves and their homes, even employing deadly force if necessary,' Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel said. 'Circumstances of this case however, led deputies to believe that Smith went beyond that point.'

And as he was charged on Monday, his intentions to shoot the teens dead became clear. In a criminal complaint, Smith said he was in the basement of his home when he heard a window breaking and footsteps. Fearful of other recent break-ins, he shot Brady when he came into view.

When the teenager tumbled down the stars, Smith shot him in the face as he lay on the floor, looking up. 'I want him dead,' the complaint quoted Smith as telling an investigator. He dragged the body into his workshop and then sat in the chair, the complaint said. When Kifer began walking down the stairs, he shot her and she fell down the stairs.

He tried to shoot her again with his rifle, but the gun jammed and Kifer laughed at him, the complaint noted. 'If you're trying to shoot somebody and they laugh at you, you go again,' Smith, 64, told investigators, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday. He then shot her several times in the chest with a .22-caliber revolver, dragged her next to her cousin, and with as she gasped 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 acknowledged that he had fired 'more shots than (he) needed to'. Smith said he left the bodies in his home overnight before calling a neighbor to ask if he knew a good lawyer. He later asked the neighbor to contact police.

A prosecutor at Morrison County District Court on Monday morning called Smith's reaction 'appalling.'

Scene: Smith's home in Little Falls, MN has been burglarized eight times in recent years, his brother said

What a fucking dump, only the desperate would want to break into there!