shot fired, at nick brady, to the ninth-and-final one fired at haile kifer. it was frightening. the prosecutors played all-12 minutes, in court. but first, warned nick and haile s families, who sat through every day of the trial, that they may not want to hear it. he actually suggested you probably shouldn t be there that day. he did, more than once. why did you want to be there? i needed to know. i mean, i you you need to hear the whole story. to understand it, i think, in this case. you can t just make a snap judgment. this is the sound of nick entering the home. walking down the stairs, to the basement. and as he is going down the stairs, you can hear him get shot. we won t play that part of the recording. but listen to what byron says, after shooting nick, three times. you re dead. then, there s a rustling
overseas. a couple years in bangkok. several years in cairo. 20 years overseas. not one problem. and i retire to my peaceful hometown. while byron s voice broke a few times during his account of the shooting, sergeant luberts was surprised at how calm and matter of fact he was for most of the interview. you would think, after such a horrific event, shooting and killing two people that broke into your house. that he would be very emotional. maybe, crying, at times. i didn t notice any of that, from byron smith. he just maintained his composure, which was rather odd. much stranger, still, the investigator thought, was byron s account of what happened a few-minutes after he shot nick. haile entered the house and byron fired, again. it jammed. trigger clicked and she laughed at me. i just pulled out the. 22 and shot her. if you are trying to shoot somebody and they laugh at you,
friend had who had mentored boy scouts and let teens jam in his garage become afraid. he was acting real quiet, real scared. and then, that crime-scene van showed up outside byron s home, and kathy was sure her friend was in trouble. just worry and panic. it s like, something s wrong. she was right. something was wrong. burglars had struck, again. this time, byron was home, and he had a gun. he had managed to defend himself, and survived the break-in. if you break into somebody s home, you better not have an expectation you re going to walk out alive, because the law permits them to shoot you. nickel wetzel was the sheriff. when two intruders broke into his house and crept downstairs, byron shot both of them, dead. minnesota law is clear on, this thing. you have the right
tape. indeed, we did. here is byron smith, shortly before the break-in, talking to himself. in your left eye. why would he say that, a half-hour before anyone came over? well, when you go through the autopsy photographs, you see that he shot haile kifer in her left eye. he was planning where he was going to shoot an intruder. not just shooting them, but where. where, in the face, is he going to shoot em? then, it sounds like byron is planning not just the shooting but, also, his defense. he practices contacting a lawyer. i realize i don t have an appointment. but i would like to see one of the lawyers here. ten minutes later, the practicing is over. the recorder captures something real. how quickly did everything go down, that day? 12 minutes. 12 minutes, from the first
those, in court, saw byron smith wipe away tears as the audio played. there was stunned silence saved for the quiet sobs from nick and haile s families. can you ever erase that from your memory? not ever. like, ever since i heard it, it s been replaying in my head, over and over. i feel like anytime i hear somebody say, oh, my god, that s what i think of. but the prosecution wasn t done with that recording. cute. i m sure she thought she was a real pro. because byron continued to talk to himself, after the teens were dead. i felt like i was cleaning up a mess. i don t see them as human. i see them as vermin. by now, kimberly had heard all the facts she needed. what do you hear, when you hear those words? pure evil. i don t know how you can say that about anybody,