Hannity Defends Vigilante Killer

[Archaeopteryx]

Hannity Defends Vigilante Killer | Blog | Media Matters for America

Fox host Sean Hannity dismissed the murder convictions of a Minnesota homeowner who used excessive force in killing two teenagers who broke into his home, claiming with exasperation, "They broke into the guy's house."

On April 29, Minnesota resident Byron Smith was convicted on two counts each of premeditated first-degree murder and second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Haile Kifer, 18, and Nick Brady, 17. Brady and Kifer were killed on Thanksgiving Day 2012 after breaking into Smith's home.

While homeowners have broad latitude in defending their residences from intruders, a jury believed that Smith went too far. Prosecutors compared Smith's actions on Thanksgiving Day to the setting up of a deer stand. After spotting a neighbor he believed had previously burglarized his house, Smith moved his car to make his home seem unoccupied and then waited in his basement "with a book, energy bars, a bottle of water and two guns."

Smith also set up an audio recording which captured what transpired. After breaking a window, Brady came down the basement stairs and was shot two times. Smith was then heard saying, "You're dead," before firing a third shot into his face. He then put Brady's body on a tarp and moved him to another room.

Moments later, Smith wounded and then killed Kifer execution-style with a shot under her chin.

From The Washington Post:

Kifer's footsteps are heard on the stairs and she calls out quietly, "Nick?"

Then comes the sound of more shots. She falls down the stairs. "Oh, sorry about that," Smith tells her. She screams, "Oh my God!"

Then more shots. Smith tells her, "You're dying," and calls her a "[bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]," the AP reported.

After more labored breathing and another dragging sound, Smith calls her "[bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]" again. He told authorities that after he moved her, he noticed she was still gasping and didn't want her to suffer, so he fired under her chin with a 22.-caliber handgun, according to a report in the Pioneer Press. The Star Tribune reported Smith told investigators the last time he fired was "a good clean finishing shot" and "she gave out the death twitch."

After the shootings, Smith's audio device captured him calling the teenagers "vermin" and stating the "mess" he had to clean up was worse than "vomit" or "diarrhea." He waited a day before asking his neighbor to alert police about the shooting.

Sean Hannity covered the case on the April 30 edition of his Fox News program. While Hannity said he didn't like the fact that Smith had called the slain teens "vermin," he nonetheless questioned the verdict because "they broke into the guy's house." Hannity also suggested that "the judge in that case didn't give all the facts to the jury," and asked, "How could it be premeditated when they broke into his house?"

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I heard the audio recording on the radio yesterday morning...chilling stuff to say the least.

I'm about as far right on the spectrum as one can be when it comes to guns, but I'll say that the gun owner was in the wrong on this one.

However, I see some messed up thinking coming from both sides of the fence on this one TBH.


I see folks criticizing Smith for the "setting up the tree stand" approach. My thoughts are this, if your home or property is being burglarized or vandalized, you have a right to use creative means to catch the people who are doing it or deter it. My dad used this sort of tactic with some neighborhood kids who turfed our lawn on a regular basis way back when I still lived at home, he strategically put out a bunch of nails and some jagged metal in the yard where they were turfing...sure enough "POP" goes their tire one night . If they complain about it or try to sue for the vehicle damage, the response would be "uh, what was your car doing in my front yard???"

...in that aspect, I sympathize with the homeowner...for cases like this, police offer little help in stopping things like that from occurring. My dad had notified the police several times based info I had given him (the kids responsible were laughing/bragging about it at school...we knew who was responsible), but the police said there was nothing they could do unless they actually caught them in the act...they parked the squad car nearby on a few evenings, but obviously the kids aren't going to do it when the cop car is near by...so sometimes you need to get creative...that's the one part I agree with Hannity on...people can criticize the "laying in wait/deer stand" method...however, nobody is making someone else break in to their home or commit crimes...as far as I'm concerned, if I want to hide my car, and sit in my basement with a gun, it's my car, my basement, my gun...I've committed no crimes...if that scenario bothers someone, they can just avoid breaking into my house.

...where it takes the turn is the particular methods the homeowner used after the conflict was already under way. If it would've been 2 clean kill shots (one for each assailant) followed by a call to the police, I'd be supporting the homeowner 100% (and technically, if you're going by the books, the proper procedure is to call the police with a gun pointed at the doorway of the room your in followed by a loud statement "THE POLICE ARE ON THEIR WAY, I HAVE A GUN!")...for a couple reasons, mainly being the police will have audio of the entire event and it'll save your butt in court. However, that's not what took place. You have the right to defend your home from threats by any means necessary, however, once both assailants are shot and down, the threat no longer exists...meaning, you don't have the right to start torturing the assailants with intentional non-lethal shots just to torment them.

...as a proud gun owning, 2A-loving, libertarian...I'll be the first to say that I don't disagree with the trap he set up to catch the people, but I do disagree with his methods as I feel that he crossed the line from defense into offense.

 

[Vylo]

I could see setting them up to trap them. But I would call the police and try to nab/disable them, not murder them. These teens were doing a scummy thing and deserved to be punished, but not executed.

 

[Bedford]

Bernard on the video is an idiot. He wants to give the guy a medal. Imus should have canned that guy long ago. Hannity is a pathetic excuse of a human.

Jail for life is fair.

 

[Needing_Grace]

Does Hannity have any pro-life bona fides remaining? This attitude makes him seem praux-life.

 

[Forest Wolf]

This homeowner had suffered numerous robberies. It's safe to assume these two were the one's committing those crimes. He'd simply had enough. While they were bolstered in getting away with robbing him before and saw him as an easy mark. That's how they knew where to break in.

I can understand how he'd be this frustrated. What he should have done is not make a recording of himself. And after he delivered the kill shots he should have called the police. Not let the corpses lay in his basement overnight.

Likely he'd be a free man. As it is it appears he's freed society of two future felons who knew no boundaries. And at such a young age they could have only gotten worse.

Their parents now have to live with their failures in parenting. While the world shall not suffer these two particular failures ever again.
I wouldn't have wanted these burglars as my neighbors. No one in their right mind would.

 

[RDKirk]

He says he'd suffered numerous break-ins, but he only notified the police about one of them.

He also had "history" with these kids before the break-ins, and the description of that history sounds like a long running feud situation. A long-running feud situation and the lack of willingness to involve the police is what makes the planning involved in the final event appear to have been a trap premeditated to end in murder.

He could just as well have set up the situation to include an immediate call to 911 while still waiting armed in the basement. But, no, he set up the trap to include homicide without a call to the police--he had prepared to handle the bodies himself.

 

[Vylo]

This homeowner had suffered numerous robberies. It's safe to assume these two were the one's committing those crimes. He'd simply had enough. While they were bolstered in getting away with robbing him before and saw him as an easy mark. That's how they knew where to break in.

I can understand how he'd be this frustrated. What he should have done is not make a recording of himself. And after he delivered the kill shots he should have called the police. Not let the corpses lay in his basement overnight.

Likely he'd be a free man. As it is it appears he's freed society of two future felons who knew no boundaries. And at such a young age they could have only gotten worse.

Their parents now have to live with their failures in parenting. While the world shall not suffer these two particular failures ever again.
I wouldn't have wanted these burglars as my neighbors. No one in their right mind would.

No he wouldn't be free. There is this thing called basic forensics, which would show that a girl shot twice already was executed by a shot under the chin. That isn't self defense, nor defense of property. That's murder. The fact that he lured them, planned it out, and then executed them makes in premeditated murder.

I'm sure where you get "2 future felons that knew no boundaries". These kids were thieves, not cannibal-puppy burning-incestual-child molester-murderers. You wouldn't want them in your neighborhood for sure, but you mast well adjusted people wouldn't want to stalk them like predators and relish in murdering them either. They would want them punished and set straight. It always seems like when I hear people make these kinds of "these kids are scum" comments, they seem to get amnesia about all the illegal things they and their friends did in their teenage years.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Smith was an experienced, well-travelled man; a sure recipe for cynicism and anger. It is clear that he was fed up with those kids as well as the criminal justice system. What is surprising is that this doesn't happen more often. Hannity's statements are not surprising, he gets almost everything wrong.

 

[SolomonVII]

They won't be breaking into his house again.

Even now that he is not going to be around to defend it.

 

[Bedford]

They won't be breaking into his house again.

Even now that he is not going to be around to defend it.

You've pointed out an interesting irony.

 

[MachZer0]

They won't be breaking into his house again.

Even now that he is not going to be around to defend it.

Wish I could have been on that jury

 

[Sunshine Locket]

They won't be breaking into his house again.

Even now that he is not going to be around to defend it.

True. I wonder if the police investigated to see if there were other break-ins in this same neighborhood.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

They won't be breaking into his house again.

Even now that he is not going to be around to defend it.

There are other ways to defend one's property that don't involve murder. It's quite a good thing that he won't be around to "defend" it. Who knows how many other people, or "vermin" to use his words, he would kill "defending" his property.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

This homeowner had suffered numerous robberies. It's safe to assume these two were the one's committing those crimes. He'd simply had enough. While they were bolstered in getting away with robbing him before and saw him as an easy mark. That's how they knew where to break in.

I can understand how he'd be this frustrated. What he should have done is not make a recording of himself. And after he delivered the kill shots he should have called the police. Not let the corpses lay in his basement overnight.

Likely he'd be a free man. As it is it appears he's freed society of two future felons who knew no boundaries. And at such a young age they could have only gotten worse.

Their parents now have to live with their failures in parenting. While the world shall not suffer these two particular failures ever again.
I wouldn't have wanted these burglars as my neighbors. No one in their right mind would.

No, their parents have to live without their children because this man murdered them. They could have mused over their successes and failures at parenting while their children faced court charged with burglary. That could have even been a "turning point" for the youths. No one knows. No one can know because they're dead now.

 

[SolomonVII]

There are other ways to defend one's property that don't involve murder. It's quite a good thing that he won't be around to "defend" it. Who knows how many other people, or "vermin" to use his words, he would kill "defending" his property.

Boo-hoo.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Boo-hoo.

Brilliant argument. How could anyone compete with that? I suppose that's the level of argument we should expect from Hannity and those who lionise cowardly men who are so eager to use their weapons to prey upon others.

 

[SolomonVII]

Brilliant argument. How could anyone compete with that? I suppose that's the level of argument we should expect from Hannity and those who lionise cowardly men who are so eager to use their weapons to prey upon others.

it is not an argument, any more than your emotional lament for the parents of these kids is an argument, nor any more than your use of the word 'vermin' is an argument.

 

[USincognito]

it is not an argument, any more than your emotional lament for the parents of these kids is an argument, nor any more than your use of the word 'vermin' is an argument.

That would be Byron Smith, the accused murderer in this case, not Archeopteryx. Perhaps you should actually read the OP.

 

[SolomonVII]

That would be Byron Smith, the accused murderer in this case, not Archeopteryx. Perhaps you should actually read the OP.

I read enough of both the OP and Archeopteryx to make my conclusion about both.