Cheers as resident who killed trespassing exchange student found guilty of homicide
Resident who killed trespassing German exchange student guilty of deliberate homicide
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 18 December, 2014, 9:35pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 18 December, 2014, 9:35pm
Associated Press in Missoula, Montana
Gulcin and Celal Dede embrace after Markus Kaarma was found guilty of deliberate homicide in the death of their son. Photo: AP
A man who shot and killed a German exchange student caught trespassing in his garage has been convicted of deliberate homicide in a case that attracted attention as a test of "stand your ground" laws in the United States that govern the use of deadly force against attackers.
Cheers erupted in the packed courtroom on Wednesday when the verdict was read in the case against Markus Kaarma, 30. The case generated outcry in Germany, where a Hamburg prosecutor said this week his office was conducting its own investigation.
Kaarma shot 17-year-old high school student Diren Dede in the early hours of April 27 after being alerted to an intruder by motion sensors. Witnesses testified Kaarma fired four shotgun blasts at Dede, who was unarmed.
The teen's parents were in the courtroom and hugged and cried at the outcome, while others applauded. "It is very good," said Dede's father, Celal Dede. "Long live justice."
Kaarma remained stoic as he was taken into custody at the end of the hearing. He faces a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on February 11. His lawyers plan to appeal.
Dede's parents will give statements to the judge to consider at sentencing. Prosecutors asked for the hearing so Celal and Gulcin Dede won't have to return to Montana in February.
The Hamburg teen was studying at Missoula's Big Sky High School and was to leave the US after the school term ended in just a few weeks.
Markus Kaarma
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 broken into at least once in the weeks before the shooting. They said Kaarma's actions were justifiable because he feared for his family's safety.
More than 30 US states, including Montana, have laws expanding the right of people to use deadly force to protect their homes or themselves, some of them known as "stand your ground" laws. The self-defence principle is known as the "castle doctrine", a centuries-old premise that a person has the right to defend their home against attack. The name evokes the old saying, "my home is my castle".
Montana's law was amended in 2009 to state that a person who is threatened with physical harm has no duty to retreat or summon law enforcement assistance prior to using force.
Prosecutors argued Kaarma was intent on luring an intruder into his garage and then harming that person. That night, Kaarma left his garage door partially open with a purse inside. Three witnesses testified they heard Kaarma say his house had been broken into and he'd been waiting up nights to shoot an intruder.
University of Montana law professor Andrew King-Ries noted state law does allow homeowners to use deadly force to protect their property, but it requires them to act reasonably. "What the jury's saying here is, you have a right to defend yourself, but this isn't reasonable," King-Ries said.
Diren Dede
"Lots of people have guns here, and lots of people feel very strongly that comes with a responsibility to handle your weapon appropriately."
Julia Reinhardt, with the German consulate in San Francisco, said on Wednesday: "We are really grateful to everybody involved and particularly impressed by the outpouring of sympathy that Diren's parents experienced here in Missoula."
At trial, neighbours had testified Kaarma's girlfriend told them the couple planned to bait and catch a burglar themselves because they believed police weren't responding to break-ins.
