'Stand your ground' defense fails in Montana murder trial

[Jazzy]

'Stand your ground' defense fails in Montana murder trial

Just days before he shot to death a 17-year-old German exchange student, Markus Kaarma told hair stylists he had been waiting up to shoot some kids who were burglarizing homes.

Kaarma hoped to bait an intruder by leaving his garage door partially open and placing a purse inside, prosecutors said. And when he did, a motion detector alerted him early April 27. Kaarma took a shotgun outside and almost immediately fired four blasts into the garage. Diren Dede, unarmed, was hit twice. He died after the final shot hit him in the head.

For those reasons, Kaarma's "castle doctrine" defense, which allows people to use deadly force to protect their home and family, failed him Wednesday. A Missoula jury convicted him of deliberate homicide.

Kaarma faces a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 11. His lawyers plan to appeal.

Kaarma's attorneys argued at trial that he feared for his life, didn't know if the intruder was armed, and was on edge because his garage was burglarized at least once in the weeks before the shooting. They said Kaarma feared for his family's safety.

Do you agree or disagree this was a deliberate homicide and why?

 

[Webster]

Agreed; this wasn't a stand your ground case but a lying-in-wait case so yes, I think the jury came up w/the right decision here.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Whatever the home owner did the person still made a free willed personal choice to break into a home. I do not agree with what the home owner did but I would have never voted to convict on that jury.