Byron Smith and Bernhard Goetz

Little Falls trial has echoes of unlikely vigilante Bernhard Goetz
Excerpt:

He'd had enough. It was time to draw that line in the sand. He had been victimized before. So, when it happened again, he was armed and ready and took action. Yet, the question remains whether he went too far and crossed the line from self-defense to deliberate criminal intent. I am not talking here about Byron Smith, the 65-year-old Little Falls, Minn., homeowner on trial in the fatal shootings of two teenagers who broke into his home on Thanksgiving Day two years ago. I'm talking about Bernhard Goetz, the white, nerdy-looking, bespectacled calibration-machine expert who shot and wounded four black teenagers who he said were about to rob him on a New York City subway train Dec. 22, 1984.

Neighbors, friends, say Smith was frightened and scared after burglaries
Excerpt:

Brian-Paul Crowder and Bill and Georgia Anderson testified Friday afternoon, that Byron Smith was concerned, frightened and scared after an Oct. 27, 2012 burglary at his home, which the Andersons said had not been the first. Smith, 65, is being tried on two counts of first-degree murder for shooting Nick Brady, 17, and Haile Kifer, 18, multiple times after the two broke into his Little Falls home.

Comment: More. The 2nd week of the trial continues tomorrow. Clearly Smith went too far, but in my own view, 1st degree murder will not be the verdict