on the exterior, he appears to be calm. but he s talking about how frightened he is, internally. he is trying to explain, to the police, what happened. he is trying to help them solve what occurred. but would the defense be able to convince the jury that byron smith s own account of the shootings, how he gave haile a self-described, finishing shot was really justified? i did a good, clean, finishing shot. from a human standpoint, it just sounds so cold blooded. it does, and i had to deal with the way it sounded. but it s not evidence of what he is thinking. it s evidence of emotion. it s not evidence of murder. he thought his strongest evidence to justify the shootings was the fact that nick brady had broken into byron smith s house, before. had even stolen guns. so, byron had every reason to fear for his life. you wanted to show them that these were kids that were up to no good? no, that s not what i wanted to do. i wanted the jury to see the truth, rather than just se
pretty peaceful. just put your faith in him? i did. and waited? and waited. it wasn t a long wait. the jury was back, in less than four hours. the verdict? guilty of first-degree murder for killing, both, nick brady and haile kifer. i waited. i heard. and i believed. and then, it was said. i was very happy to see him taken away. but there was no winners. doesn t give you your brother and your best friend back. exactly. i put my head in my hands, and went, thank god for them. you know? that they got that. the families? yes. but byron s supporters felt the opposite of relief. shocked. stunned. it was such a one-sided trial. it was so unfair. kathy said there s so much more to her friend the jury never learned. he just came here to retire, and want a quiet life. this should have never happened.
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 sound that the prosecution says is byron unfolding a tarp, that he uses to move nick s body. you can, then, hear byron
testimony about nick s involvement in that previous break-in was irrelevant and inadmissible. he, also, couldn t say in court that there was evidence that nick and haile, together, had robbed another house, too. unfortunately, the judge would not allow that evidence to come in. and i thought he was making a grave error. how many witnesses did you have lined up, who weren t allowed to speak? about half a dozen. and so, byron smith s friends, watching in court, could only hope that the jury would see things, as they did. that he was a scared man, who defended his life and property. we knew him as our friend byron. so, it was ridiculous, to us, for authorities calling him a cold-blooded killer. it would be an uphill battle in the court of public opinion, thought prosecutors. they knew they had the burden of proof. i have tried a lot of murder cases. and this one, in particular, seemed like a real
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 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 thr