and dangerous. he thought that he was dealing with drug-seeking type individuals that were erratic and who knows what they how they were gonna respond. reporter: he told the jury that his client had reason to believe diren dede was armed and ready to attack. and because he felt his life was threatened by the movement, specifically, of mr. dede, he had to take the steps, unfortunately, to take his life. the danger of a burglar is when there s a confrontation, and they all want to escape, and they ll do whatever they can to get away. reporter: the defense said there was no debate over one central fact. diren dede went into that garage to steal. and on the stand, kaarma s lawyer got diren s friend robby to admit that despite warnings, diren didn t see much wrong with garage hopping. i think diren never felt like it was a crime.
he said the kids weren t after money, credit cards or valuables. this stunt happened often enough that it had a name, garage hopping. and the target was usually beer. the reason for garage hopping, or garage shopping, i ve heard it called both, was for kids to go in and look for alcoholic beverages that they could easily get and take. until this shooting, that sort of wasn t on anybody s radar in law enforcement? no. i had not heard of garage hopping. no. reporter: these three friends of diren s say they ve never gone garage hopping, but they know all about it. you all know people who do it or have done it? yeah. right? they understand it s illegal? uh-huh. yeah. but it seemed harmless? yeah. exactly. i mean, it s just it s like, hey, dude, this is a way for you to get some extra beer, you know, on a saturday night. i mean, did you think to yourself, oh, my god, we didn t tell him how dangerous it could be. but no one knew.
he thought that he was dealing with drug-seeking type individuals that were erratic and who knows what they how they were gonna respond. reporter: he told the jury that his client had reason to believe diren dede was armed and ready to attack. and because he felt his life was threatened by the movement, specifically, of mr. dede, he had to take the steps, unfortunately, to take his life. the danger of a burglar is when there s a confrontation, and they all want to escape, and they ll do whatever they can to get away. reporter: the defense said there was no debate over one central fact. diren dede went into that garage to steal. and on the stand, kaarma s lawyer got diren s friend robby to admit that despite warnings, diren didn t see much wrong with garage hopping. i think diren never felt like it was a crime. but were warning him. you were telling him it wasn t right. it was reckless. it was dangerous, right?
that diren dede was another one and dangerous. he thought that he was dealing with drug-seeking type individuals that were erratic and who knows what they how they were gonna respond. reporter: he told the jury that his client had reason to believe diren dede was armed and ready to attack. and because he felt his life was threatened by the movement, specifically, of mr. dede, he had to take the steps, unfortunately, to take his life. the danger of a burglar is when there s a confrontation, and they all want to escape, and they ll do whatever they can to get away. reporter: the defense said there was no debate over one central fact. diren dede went into that garage to steal. and on the stand, kaarma s lawyer got diren s friend robby to admit that despite warnings, diren didn t see much wrong with garage hopping. i think diren never felt like it was a crime.
face had just no expression. it was, like, scary almost. we were all like taken aback. i was like take it back. there was no meaning in that. reporter: and they say garage hopping is no longer popular. have attitudes changed about all of that since then? of course. yeah. i haven t heard a thing about it since. it s unheard of. yeah. reporter: diren s friends hope that people will forget the one deadly mistake diren made, and remember instead the bright, charming guy they loved. you know, you re all pretty young to have to go through this. do you feel like this has changed you? yeah. one hundred percent. yeah, every day you wake up, you think, obviously, something like that could happen and you need to, like, do things that matter. life seem a little more precious now? uh-huh. he s encouraging us to do a lot of things.