shot fired, at nick brady, to the ninth-and-final one fired at haile kifer. >> it was frightening. >> the prosecutors played all-12 minutes, in court. but first, warned nick and haile's families, who sat through every day of the trial, that they may not want to hear it. >> he actually suggested you probably shouldn't be there that day. >> he did, more than once. >> why did you want to be there? >> i needed to know. i mean, i -- you -- you need to hear the whole story. to understand it, i think, in this case. you can't just make a snap judgment. >> this is the sound of nick entering the home. walking down the stairs, to the basement. >> and as he is going down the stairs, you can hear him get shot. >> we won't play that part of the recording. but listen to what byron says, after shooting nick, three times. >> you're dead. >> then, there's a rustling
overseas. a couple years in bangkok. several years in cairo. 20 years overseas. not one problem. and i retire to my peaceful hometown. >> while byron's voice broke a few times during his account of the shooting, sergeant luberts was surprised at how calm and matter of fact he was for most of the interview. >> you would think, after such a horrific event, shooting and killing two people that broke into your house. that he would be very emotional. maybe, crying, at times. i didn't notice any of that, from byron smith. he just maintained his composure, which was rather odd. >> much stranger, still, the investigator thought, was byron's account of what happened a few-minutes after he shot nick. haile entered the house and byron fired, again. >> it jammed. trigger clicked and she laughed at me. i just pulled out the. 22 and shot her. if you are trying to shoot somebody and they laugh at you,
>> those, in court, saw byron smith wipe away tears as the audio played. there was stunned silence saved for the quiet sobs from nick and haile's families. >> can you ever erase that from your memory? >> not ever. >> like, ever since i heard it, it's been replaying in my head, over and over. i feel like anytime i hear somebody say, oh, my god, that's what i think of. >> but the prosecution wasn't done with that recording. >> cute. i'm sure she thought she was a real pro. >> because byron continued to talk to himself, after the teens were dead. >> i felt like i was cleaning up a mess. i don't see them as human. i see them as vermin. >> by now, kimberly had heard all the facts she needed. >> what do you hear, when you hear those words? >> pure evil. i don't know how you can say that about anybody,
break-in, a month earlier, when two of his guns were stolen. >> these are people, who have stolen my guns. i figure they're willing to use those, if they steal guns. >> byron wasn't home during those other break-ins. but this time, he was. as seen on this home-security camera. he said he had moved his truck a few blocks away, that morning, so he could clean his garage. the teens must have thought he wasn't there. >> i needed to clean out the garage, and i wanted it out of the way for a while. >> byron told him how he was in the basement when he heard the first intruder break in, upstairs, and head down toward him. >> you heard footsteps coming down the stairs, is that correct? >> yes, and then i saw his feet. and then, i saw his legs. and when i saw his hips, i shot. >> it was nick. byron shot him three times. >> i was reacting. >> okay. >> what were you reacting to? is what i'm asking. >> the threat, the previous losses. i spent 20 years
happen in trial. i've never, in my life, had evidence such as this. >> this might be more than what we're, initially, being told. >> but before all the fear and the finger pointing, it was just another thanksgiving weekend in november, 2012, in the small town of little falls, minnesota. >> everybody knows everybody and everything about everybody. >> 18-year-old, rachel brady, was spending the holiday with her 17-year-old brother, nick, and their 18-year-old cousin, haile kifer. >> we were always together. we would go camping. we were always in the water. always doing something. me and haile were always together. >> nick was the fun-loving one in the group. kimberly is his mom. >> he found joy in everything, and he would make sure to find something to make you smile. >> he'd just sit there and hug me. and be like, oh, rachel, rachel, my big sister. and then, make me laugh every single time. >> like all kids, they liked to
tease each other. like, when rachel called nick the nickname he had when he was a little boy. "nickel baby." >> nobody else called him that? just the family? >> oh, no, like his really good friends would call him it, after they heard me call him it. he would get so mad at me for saying it in front of his friends. >> growing up, nick was into sports and loved the outdoors. so did his cousin haile, who was as bright and active as he was. >> she was vivacious, bubbly, and funny. >> she was very athletic in high school. she was in gymnastics and softball and track. >> the close-knit cousins spent the wednesday before thanksgiving together. rachel says, there isn't all that much for teens to do in little falls so they would drive around town in the red mitsubishi nick rebuilt, himself. >> did you cruise right down the main drag here? >> pretty much, everywhere. >> so, just spending the day,
>> to the sergeant, it all looked like a classic case of trouble-making kids crossing a line into dangerous, criminal behavior. >> you have two teenagers that seem to be running kind of rampant. you can, obviously, see that they had a change in their lives. >> and in fact, when investigators located nick's car parked on a secluded road near byron smith's home. they found items stolen from another house. >> maybe, it was the motivation of money and having material items. maybe, it was the motivation of having friends. and wanting to please friends. >> the evidence appeared to, all, be there. clearly, captured on that surveillance video. nick and haile had broken in, and byron smith seemed to have every reason to be afraid. >> the impression that he kind of left on me was that he was living in fear. he was not sleeping. it was, obviously, bothering him, physically and -- and emotionally. >> at first, even nick's mom, while she didn't want to
>> it was such a one-sided trial. it was so unfair. >> kathy said there's so much more to her friend the jury never learned. >> he just came here to retire, and want a quiet life. this should have never happened. >> this was just pure, utter sadness. >> it was just-12 minutes that changed so many lives, in so many tragic ways. byron smith will live out his retirement, in prison, having received an automatic-life sentence. and nick brady and haile kifer, two young cousins, who made a terrible decision to enter that home, paid for it with their lives. and their loved ones are left to mourn a future that will never be. >> you had a little, baby girl, not too long ago. and nick and haile weren't here to see that. >> i think that's probably one of the hardest parts about all
just after 12:30, the cameras pick up a man approaching the house. the hooded figure is nick. he looks through several windows, as if checking to see if someone's home. he clutches his hood, closely, concealing his face. jeremy luberts is an investigative sergeant with the morrison county sheriff's department. >> you could see that there had been what appeared to be a little bit of casing done on -- on nicholas brady's part. >> he even heads toward one of the cameras and tries to dismantle it. then, he walks out of camera range, shatters a window and enters the house. minutes later, the camera shows another hooded figure. this one, carrying a purse and a cellphone. it's haile. >> on the video, it shows that the female had come walking through the yard, up toward the house. >> all on tape, clear as daylight. but why? what were nick and haile up to that day? >> they both went to my school, at one time. >> dylan lange is the son of byron's friends, john and kathy. >> in little falls. you know,
news. >> we heard about a car accident that had a red car. and we thought it was him, right away. and so, we went and looked and it ended up being car pieces for a different car. and so, then, when that wasn't him either, we started to get extremely worried. after that. >> we drove up and down the back roads, though. >> we looked. >> up and down the highway. any way i could think of that might lead -- >> through town, anywhere. >> rachel posted messages on facebook. has anyone heard from haile or nick? still, nothing. by friday afternoon, they were out of their minds with worry. >> i mean, we called and called and called. no answers. no nothing. we kept getting the voicemails. and i was like, nick, this is getting serious. you know, we -- >> i started crying, on one of 'em. and i was like, you better not be making fun of me. >> this better not be a joke. >> yeah. >> before the day was over, the family would find out, this was no joke. something terrible had happened to nick and haile but