Markus Kaarma - SYG - not so much (1 Viewer)

[msommer]

http://missoulian.com/news/local/markus-kaarma-verdict-guilty-of-deliberate-homicide-in-german-student/article_18660484-56d2-5b60-80d5-6b4f81ad4e15.html

A jury of eight women and four men found Markus Kaarma guilty Wednesday of deliberate homicide in the April shooting death of Diren Dede, following more than eight hours of deliberation.

Kaarma, 30, was charged with deliberate homicide following the April 27 incident.

Dede, a 17-year-old exchange student from Germany, was apparently looking for alcohol in Kaarma’s Grant Creek garage when Kaarma shot him twice with a shotgun. One shot hit Dede’s arm, and was survivable. The second, fatal shot hit the teenager in the head.

Jurors began their deliberations Tuesday afternoon after defense attorneys and prosecutors made their final statements in a packed and tension-filled courtroom.

Kaarma’s five-member defense team argued that he shot Dede in self-defense after a ring of teenage burglars targeted his home. His lead attorney, Paul Ryan, gave the closing statements Tuesday, indicating that Dede had every intention of stealing possessions from Kaarma’s garage when he went out for a walk with his friend and fellow exchange student, Robby Pazmino, that evening.

“What he was doing was going to violate the sanctity of someone’s home,” Ryan said. “He has no business being where he’s at. He’s up to no good. He’s looking to go stealing something.”

He suggested Dede, Pazmino and a third unidentified person were involved in an orchestrated attempt to burglarize Kaarma’s home, using testimony from a neighbor, who told the court that he observed an “exodus” of cars leaving the neighborhood after the shooting.

But prosecutors contended Kaarma premeditated the shooting, and he and his partner Janelle Pflager set up a trap to ensnare potential burglars into their garage.

That night, Dede was only taking a walk with his best friend Pazmino, who testified that he didn’t know what Dede was doing when he slipped into Kaarma’s partially open garage.

“The only person who rushed to judgment was the defendant," Deputy County Attorney Karla Painter said in her closing statement. "The only person that was targeted was Mr. Dede. He didn’t need to die on April 27. Was he somewhere he shouldn’t have been? Yes. Was he considering taking something he shouldn’t have? Probably. Did he deserve to die for (teenage) transgressions?”

Late Tuesday, the jury asked to review a video and continued watching the video when the trial resumed Wednesday morning at 8:30. They went back into deliberations shortly around 9:30 a.m.

 

[msommer]

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/crime/2014/12/09/teen-german-student-thought-burglaries-game/20153321/

Neighbors detail baiting plot in German teen's deathLisa Baumann10:04 p.m. MST December 9, 2014

(Photo: AP Photo/The Missoulian, Kurt Wilson)

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MISSOULA – Neighbors of the Montana man who fatally shot a German exchange student testified at the man's murder trial Tuesday that the man's girlfriend told them the couple planned to bait intruders in order to catch them in their garage.

Neighbor Jessica Bracey said she had a conversation with Markus Kaarma's girlfriend, Janelle Pflager, days before the April 27 shooting. She told jurors she is certain Pflager used the word "bait" in describing plans to catch intruders after their garage had been burglarized April 17.

"Yeah, we're going to bait them in and use baby monitors to catch them," Bracey recalled Pflager saying, adding the baby monitors would show live video of the garage and if anyone had ventured inside. "The term was bait. I know because it stuck in my head."

Prosecutors attempted to show a trap had been set for anyone who tried to burglarize Kaarma's garage, and that he was intent on harming that person before he shot and killed 17-year-old Diren Dede inside the garage. Kaarma is on trial for deliberate homicide.

Pflager has testified she wasn't planning to bait anyone — but that she did leave a purse in the garage so she'd know someone had been inside.

Kaarma's next-door neighbor testified Tuesday that on the night of the first burglary, he heard Pflager threaten the people who answered his stolen cellphone.

"If you return to our garage you could be killed," Terry Fink said Pflager told them. "It was jaw dropping to me at the time."

Defense attorney Brian Smith asserted that Fink didn't like Kaarma and that he wouldn't do anything that might help Kaarma during the trial. Fink disagreed.

Another neighbor testified that most of the neighborhood disagreed with what Kaarma did that night.

Kaarma's attorneys say Montana's "stand your ground" law allowed him to use deadly force to defend his home.

Robby Pazmino, 19, of Quito, Ecuador, told jurors Tuesday that he and Dede became fast friends after they met as exchange students in Missoula.

They had been involved in "garage-hopping," or sneaking into people's garages, on as many as five other occasions, and many students at their high school were doing it, Pazmino said.

Pazmino said he and Dede went for a walk late April 26 and that they noticed Markus Kaarma's partially open garage door. Pazmino said they didn't discuss burglarizing garages that night, but he did ask Dede if he was "going there."

Dede didn't respond, Pazmino said, adding that he walked down the street and waited.

Pazmino testified that he started running after hearing the first shot and jumped a few fences to get to the home of Dede's host family. He said he didn't call 911 because he didn't think anyone would have been shot.

 

[SacramentoBob]

The whole idea of setting up a bait so you can shoot someone for breaking into your garage is psychotic.

 

[Al O'Pecia]

The whole idea of setting up a bait so you can shoot someone for breaking into your garage is psychotic.

I don't shoot them, but I have been known to set bait to trap people.

Example

 

[grateful zed]

i got popped for driving on a suspended license this spring. spent the night in jail and saw the judge the next morning and guess who sat next to me in court.

 

[Henry Ford]

i got popped for driving on a suspended license this spring. spent the night in jail and saw the judge the next morning and guess who sat next to me in court.

Lindsay Lohan.

 

[El Floppo]

sentenced to 70 years.

*whoa*

 

[SacramentoBob]

sentenced to 70 years.

*whoa*