Montana homeowner who killed German teen was aggressor: prosecutor
By Lori Grannis MISSOULA, Mont. (Reuters) - Prosecutors seeking to convict a Montana homeowner in the slaying of a teenage German exchange student painted a picture of the man on Thursday as an armed aggressor who left a purse in his garage to lure a would-be burglar. Markus Kaarma, 30, is charged with deliberate homicide in the April slaying of 17-year-old Diren Dede of Hamburg, who authorities said was killed while "garage hopping" in a possible search for alcohol. The death sparked outrage in Germany. Kaarma has pleaded not guilty and is expected to invoke Montana's so-called "castle doctrine" self-defense law, which allows deadly force against a home invasion if a person reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent an assault. In opening arguments of a trial that could test the limits of that law, Missoula County prosecutor Jennifer Clark said the homeowner had installed motion detectors and a baby monitor days before the shooting, and left a purse filled with cash and other items in the garage on the day Dede was killed. On the night of the shooting, Dede and a fellow exchange student approached Kaarma's open garage, and Dede entered, while his friend remained on the street, the friend told police in an affidavit. Alerted to Dede's presence by motion sensors and a video monitor, Kaarma waited 23 seconds after seeing an intruder in his darkened garage before grabbing his shotgun, followed by his common law wife carrying a baseball bat, Clark told the jury. "He trapped him in the garage. At that point he became the aggressor," she said. “You can use deadly force in an occupied structure if there is a threat of violence, but you cannot be the aggressor.” Kaarma fired four shotgun blasts, killing Dede, according to prosecutors. Clark said that in the moments before the shooting, the wife heard Dede say “No! No! No, please!” Defense attorney Paul Ryan countered that Kaarma, a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, acted in self-defense, fearing for the safety of his family as Dede entered a garage attached to his home. Ryan blamed lack of police response and growing anxiety from two previous burglaries for his client's volatile behavior, and said Dede was part of a larger high school burglary ring. Kaarma, who Ryan said suffered from a social anxiety disorder, could face 10 to 100 years in prison if convicted. (Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)
