http://news.yahoo.com/delibera...lling-062400337.html
We'll see what happens if appealed.
Peter.

He was over the top, in my opinion.

I don't think I could shoot somebody over merely stuff. Especially if I'm in a position of safety. Enter my home uninvited and I will assume you are there for evil.

'Prosecutors argued Kaarma was intent on luring an intruder into his garage"

It's one thing to whack someone stealing the newspaper from the front yard but once the creep enters your house/garage, let them have it.

Florida is right. Montana has turned into a bunch of California transplant tear-jerking panty-wastes instead of the now long forgotten pioneers.*

*That should rile up some real Montana boys

And some hyphenated jerk-water professor is the authority?

I don't want to shoot anybody to save my stuff, but if they are in my house how am I going to know what their intentions are? If me racking the slide doesn't send them on their way I guess it's on.

I think in this case, the shooter set a trap, and then deliberately killed the perp, possibly execution style because of the delay between shots. In addition, he was stupid enough to talk about it before hand.

I think the trap was a good idea, then when they take the bait, call the cops. The killing was not necessary IMO. Based on what little I have read about it, I would likely have voted "Guilty" as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
I think in this case, the shooter set a trap, and then deliberately killed the perp, possibly execution style because of the delay between shots. In addition, he was stupid enough to talk about it before hand..

I think the trap was a good idea,then when they take the bait, call the cops. The killing was not necessary IMO. Based on what little I have read about it, I would likely have voted "Guilty" as well.

SHOOTER:

ELEMENTS OF A CRIMINAL HOMICIDE: INTENT & LAYING IN WAIT.

A) shooter set a trap

B) deliberately killed the perp

C) In addition, he was stupid enough to talk about it before hand..

And the poor college student. No baby photos? His parents could afford to be around for the whole trial but their kid was out committing robbery (ies)?

And going back to Germany after the end of the semester? What a load.

The first thing foreign students did when I was teaching is get an immigration lawyer as soon as they hit the USA. None of them ever got deported back to which they had come to my recollection.

Premeditated murder. What an idiot.

Well despite Will's kind comments about the student and his family, presumably from personal knowledge, the verdict is in:

"MISSOULA, Mont. (Reuters) - A Montana homeowner who was found guilty of deliberate homicide last year for fatally shooting an unarmed 17-year-old German exchange student who entered his garage was sentenced on Thursday to 70 years in prison.

Markus Kaarma, 30, will not be eligible for parole for the first 20 years of his sentence.

He was convicted in December of killing Diren Dede of Hamburg in a trial that tested Montana's so-called "castle doctrine" self-defense law, which allows deadly force against a home invasion if a person reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent an assault.

Prosecutor Andrew Paul said on Thursday prior to the sentencing that Kaarma, a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, had a long history of assaults and domestic abuse, and characterized him as an unpredictable "powder keg."

At trial, prosecutors painted Kaarma as an armed aggressor who lured Dede to his death while the student was "garage hopping" at night in Missoula, perhaps looking for alcohol.

The Missoula County District Court heard how Kaarma installed motion detectors and a baby monitor days before the shooting, and deliberately left cash and other items in the garage on the day he killed Dede.

Judge Ed McLean said Kaarma's actions were alarming and stemmed in part from an earlier incident in which marijuana belonging to Kaarma was stolen.

"You weren't killing to protect your family, you were angry someone stole your grass two weeks before. You were angry with the world," the judge said.

Wearing shackles and an orange prison jumpsuit, Kaarma said he was sorry for taking another man's life.

"I did what was necessary and I hope no one else finds themselves in the situation I was in," Kaarma said.

Prosecutors said Kaarma lost legal protection when he left his house to corner the student in the garage after being alerted to Dede's presence by the monitoring devices.

Defense attorneys countered unsuccessfully that Kaarma was under no obligation to retreat from an intruder, and that his actions were in line with Montana law.

The defense had called for a new trial, arguing that "prejudicial" media coverage had made it impossible to seat an impartial jury. But McLean rejected that request, and another that Kaarma's conviction be downgraded from deliberate homicide, during a hearing earlier on Thursday before sentencing.

Defense lawyers said they planned to appeal the verdict to the Montana Supreme Court, but otherwise made no comment. "

I am assuming from the comments made that it was a detached garage?