Minnesota jury finds Byron Smith, 65, guilty of murdering two teen intruders

It took the Jury only three hours.

A jury took just three hours Tuesday afternoon to find Byron Smith, 65, guilty of the Thanksgiving Day 2012 slayings of Haile Kifer, 18, and Nick Brady, 17. Audio clips of the shootings were captured by a recording system the man had rigged up to capture the burglars in the act.

www.nydailynews.com...

This was a pretty much cut and dry case between doing what is right and doing what is wrong in my opinion. I think he was right in the beginning but then took it to far.

Please don't become uncivil like the last thread, but as always, you're opinions are valued. Whether you agree with the verdict or not.

Oops. it didn't show up in the search, but the story is already here. I can't believe I didn't see it.
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Mods...do your thing.

The fact that he did set up the camp in his basement and drive his car away does imply a substantial amount of forethought. The real problem here is that the two had intended to rob the man, and not for the first time. The court should be at fault for not properly catching these two criminals in the first place.

As the victim of an armed robbery, which turned into an attempted murder, I can sympathize with Mr. Smith. Having your home or personal property robbed is a very life-changing and frightening thing. He defended himself, and his property. Saying that the teens were unarmed is a viable point, but a 65 year old man doesn't stand a chance physically against two young adults. Had Mr. Smith been unarmed, the teens may have attacked him.

It is tough to say who was right and who was wrong, because both parties were at fault. Maybe if there was an alternative to robbing old people, this wouldn't happen. With the lack of jobs, widening economic gap and colleges becoming increasingly expensive, young adults are going to be forced to do more heinous crimes just to survive.

I am not surprised by the verdict. To me it's a double standard, for example the recordings of the malicious premeditated murder of James Boyd. The police already had him down too and still killed him. In case you don't know about James Boyd..

I'm sure those officers aren't standing trial for murder. If they did, they'd probably just say we're following protocols and be found not guilty.

In the end, it's just all sad. We're created equal huh?

In this case justice has been served.

a reply to: qwerty12345

The FBI has opened an investigation into the Albuquerque police-involved shooting of a homeless camper on March 16.

Two different stories with two different examples. But on the face of things, it seems that the LEOs should be worried about their actions that day.

a reply to: oneupShadow

I can sympathize with Mr. Smith as well. But I cannot sympathize with his actions after the fact.

This was a conflicted case for me at first. I'm all about the Castle doctrine and SYG. But once the threat is removed, you don't pump more rounds into the bodies just to make sure. This is not warfare. Different laws apply.

I agree with those who have said, "Better to be tried by twelve, than carried by six."

Well, he has been tried and convicted. He lost that bet, just like those idiot teens lost theirs.

No one is really a winner here.

No,....its not warfare...but even in warfare....the killing of enemy soldiers who are wounded and down is not exactly legal either.....The first guy was guilty as sin...the albaquerqi cops are also murderers in my book....and just as wanton as the First killer old Smith......cold...just stone freakin cold.....

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