After Byron David Smith fatally shot Nicholas Brady and Haile Kifer on Thanksgiving Day 2012, investigators discovered an audio recording of Smith taunting the teenagers as they lay dying on his basement floor.
Meshbesher & Associates, PAByron David Smith fatally shot teenage cousins Haile Kifer and Nicholas Brady when they broke into his house in 2012.
Byron David Smith was a retired security engineer for the U.S. State Department. He spent his career protecting American embassies around the world from terrorist attacks. But on Thanksgiving Day 2012, he became a killer himself.
Smith’s home in Little Falls, Minnesota, had been broken into several times throughout 2012, leading him to install an extensive surveillance system. When he spotted a teenager he suspected was behind the burglaries driving through his neighborhood on Nov. 22, he decided to set a trap.
Smith moved his truck and turned off all of his lights so it would appear as if he weren’t home and then hid in his basement with a gun. Before long, 17-year-old Nicholas Brady entered his house through a window. As Brady walked down the basement stairs, Smith fatally shot him. A few minutes later, he also killed Brady’s cousin, 18-year-old Haile Kifer, when she came looking for him — but not before he taunted her as she bled out on his floor.
Instead of turning himself in immediately, Byron David Smith waited until the next day to ask a neighbor to call the police. His subsequent trial sparked debate about castle doctrine and property defense laws, but chilling audio of the murders that was recorded by Smith himself ultimately put the killer behind bars for the rest of his life.
The Events Leading Up To The Thanksgiving Day Crime
After a busy career protecting U.S. embassies in cities like Bangkok, Cairo, and Beijing from outside threats, Byron David Smith settled down for a quiet retirement in Little Falls, Minnesota, in 2006.
That period of calm came to an end in 2012, when burglars started breaking into his house. As reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2013, the thieves stole an envelope full of cash, a video camera, a chainsaw, copper wire, a gas siphoning kit, a shotgun, and more.
Smith reportedly noticed the items were missing after he’d hired a local teenager named Nicholas Brady and some of his friends to do yard work. He soon became paranoid, started carrying a gun around his house, and added security cameras to his property.
Minnesota Judicial BranchSurveillance footage captured Nicholas Brady trying to find a way in to Byron David Smith’s house.
Then, on Thanksgiving Day, everything came to a head.
The Murders Of Nicholas Brady And Haile Kifer
On the morning of Nov. 22, 2012, 64-year-old Byron David Smith was visiting the home of a friend who lived nearby when he saw a teenage neighbor drive past. He suspected the girl had something to do with the break-ins, so he put a chilling plan into action.
He moved his truck several blocks away, went to his basement, turned on an audio recorder, and sat in a hidden chair with a book, a water bottle, and some snacks. In the next room, a screen streamed footage from Smith’s outdoor surveillance cameras.
While the neighbor Smith thought was behind the burglaries never showed up, two other teens did. Just after 12:30 p.m., 17-year-old Nicholas Brady broke Smith’s bedroom window and crawled into his house. As Brady walked down the basement stairs, Smith shot him twice.
KSTP 5 Eyewitness News/YouTubeNicholas Brady was 17 years old when he was killed while breaking into Byron David Smith’s house.
Brady tumbled down the remaining steps, and Smith approached and shot the boy once more in the head at point-blank range. According to court documents, Byron David Smith told Brady, “You’re dead,” as he fired his gun. He then dragged Brady into another room and placed his body on a tarp.
Eight minutes later, Brady’s cousin, 18-year-old Haile Kifer, entered the house looking for him. As soon as Smith saw her walking down the basement steps, he fired. She fell down the stairs, but when Smith tried to shoot her again, his rifle jammed. He then stated, “Oh, sorry about that,” and pulled out a revolver.
KSTP 5 Eyewitness News/YouTubeHaile Kifer, the 18-year-old cousin of Nicholas Brady.
As Kifer screamed, Smith shot her three more times, telling her, “You’re dying,” and calling her a “b—tch.” He then dragged her to the tarp, where he fired one last lethal bullet.
The Aftermath Of Byron David Smith’s Chilling Crime
For the next few hours, Smith seemingly paced around his basement while talking to himself. His audio recorder picked up statements like, “I’m sure she thought she was a real pro,” and, “I was doing my civic duty. If the law enforcement system couldn’t handle it, I had to do it. I had to do it.”
At one point, Byron David Smith said, “They weren’t human. I don’t see them as human. I see them as vermin. Social mistakes. Social problems… This b—tch was going to go through her life, destroying things for other people. Thieving, robbing, drug use.”
Smith didn’t call the police that afternoon. He later claimed that he didn’t want to ruin the holiday for the officers. Instead, he phoned a friend the next day, asking him to find a lawyer because he’d solved the neighborhood break-ins.
Morrison County Sheriff’s Office/Evidence PhotoByron David Smith concealed himself in a chair between two bookshelves in his basement while lying in wait for the burglars.
The friend then called the police, who arrived at Smith’s house shortly after. Smith first showed them the broken window in his bedroom — and then he led them to the basement. He admitted that he’d shot the teens, but he claimed that he was worried they were armed and had fired before he could see their hands.
It was all an act of self-defense, Smith explained. But he also incriminated himself while talking to the officers. “I fired more shots than I needed to,” he said, stating that he was angry because he thought Kifer had laughed at him when his gun jammed. Smith also confessed that he’d continued shooting Kifer after she was incapacitated because she was suffering. “I did a good clean finishing shot,” he told the police.
Byron David Smith was immediately taken into custody and charged with murder. His trial began in April 2014, and it led to heated conversations about what constitutes self-defense.
The Trial Of Byron David Smith
Byron David Smith’s defense attorney, Steve Meshbesher, began the trial by stating, “This is not a case of whodunit,” as reported by MPR News in 2014. “Mr. Smith is the person who shot and killed those two people, but he is not criminally responsible for the deaths. He is not guilty of murder.”
Meshbesher claimed that Smith was terrified after the previous break-ins, so when he heard glass break and footsteps upstairs on Thanksgiving Day, he was trying to protect himself. While Minnesota does have castle doctrine laws that state a homeowner can use deadly force to defend themselves, it does not permit executing someone once the threat is contained.
Prosecutors argued that after Smith had wounded Brady and Kifer and realized that they were unarmed, he should have called the police — not continued shooting.
Minnesota Department of CorrectionsByron David Smith remains behind bars for the murders of Nicholas Brady and Haile Kifer.
Smith’s own audio recordings also painted a disturbing picture. He had taunted the teens as they died and then called them names as their bodies lay in the next room.
A jury found Byron David Smith guilty of premeditated first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Reactions to Smith’s conviction were split. Some people believed that Brady and Kifer, who were later discovered to have stolen six bottles of prescription medication from another home the day before they were killed, were asking for trouble when they entered Smith’s house.
Others agreed that Smith had used excessive force and that the teenagers’ crimes weren’t deserving of a death sentence.
What is clear is that what happened in Little Falls, Minnesota, on Thanksgiving Day 2012 destroyed three lives and had a devastating impact on countless loved ones, friends, and community members.
After reading about the crimes of Byron David Smith, learn about Bernhard Goetz, the “Subway Vigilante” who made headlines for defending himself from muggers. Then, go inside the twisted story of Elmer Wayne Henley Jr., the teenage accomplice of “Candy Man” Dean Corll who later murdered the serial killer.
