LITTLE FALLS, Minn. (AP) - The day after a Minnesota man killed two teens who entered his home, he matter-of-factly described the shootings in chilling detail, telling authorities he finished off one teen with a shot under her chin because a .22-caliber “doesn’t go through bone very well,” according to an audiotaped interview played in court Monday.
Byron Smith, 65, of Little Falls, is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the slayings of 17-year-old Nick Brady and 18-year-old Haile Kifer on Thanksgiving Day 2012. The killings rocked the small central Minnesota city of about 8,000 and stirred debate about how far people can go in defending their homes.
Prosecutors said during opening statements that Smith planned the killings and was lying in wait in his basement. Smith’s attorney said his client was terrified after several increasingly violent break-ins and was hiding after he heard a window break and footsteps upstairs.
“He became frightened and scared to live in his own home,” said Smith’s attorney, Steve Meshbesher, later adding, “He began to wear a holster and pistol in his own house. That is how afraid he is, and became.”
Assistant Washington County Attorney Brent Wartner told jurors that Smith thought a neighbor girl had been breaking into his home. On that day, he moved his truck away from his house, sat in his basement “and he waited,” Wartner said.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Almost 50 years after the Beatles made their only Minnesota appearance, Paul McCartney has been booked for another ballpark concert.
The Minnesota Twins announced Monday that McCartney will bring his “Out There” tour to Target Field for a Saturday night show on Aug. 2. Tickets were set to go on sale in coming days.
McCartney will turn 72 this summer. His most recent Twin Cities appearance was in 2005 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
The only time the Beatles came to the state was in 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium, then the Twins’ home. The team moved to the Metrodome in 1982 and into Target Field in 2010.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards has publicly reprimanded Clay County District Judge Steven J. Cahill.
The board cited several instances when Cahill failed to follow the law. In one case the judge reduced the sentence of an immigrant who pleaded guilty to burglary because he was concerned a felony conviction might result in his deportation. The board says Cahill did so even though he knew of two appeals court decisions that said potential immigration consequences must not be taken into consideration for sentencing purposes. Cahill had expressed disagreement with those binding precedents.
The board also faulted Cahill for extensive chronic tardiness.
Cahill tells KFGO-AM he’s seeing a counselor about his tardiness. Cahill says he will not appeal the board’s findings and says he plans to seek re-election this fall.
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PARK RAPIDS, Minn. (AP) - A woman is accused of tying two horses to a tree in northern Minnesota, more than two weeks before the animals were found starved to death.
Twenty-eight-year-old Minden Crenshaw of Park Rapids faces three felony counts of mistreating animals.
The Star Tribune (https://strib.mn/1jsrVz4https://strib.mn/1jsrVz4 ) reports Crenshaw posted bond Monday afternoon.
According to the charges, a man out for a walk found the horse carcasses in the woods and contacted the Hubbard County sheriff’s office Saturday. One horse was tied to a tree while the other apparently had broken its rope.
The sheriff’s office says Crenshaw acknowledged tying her horses to a tree on a neighbor’s property after her mother refused to keep the animals at home.
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