Hit Kaarma News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> i'm guy baker. i'm a detective. >> reporter: the homeowner was markus kaarma. kaarma and his common law wife, janelle pflaeger, had just moved to missoula. they were looking for a quiet, safe and kid-friendly place to raise their child. police spoke with janelle at the scene and recorded their talk with kaarma at the station. >> so what we want to talk about is what happened tonight at your house. >> reporter: the couple told investigators the story actually began with a burglary three weeks earlier. and then just ten days after that, the burglars returned. >> somebody had trespassed in the...

America, not germany. aren't you allowed to protect yourself, your home, your family? was even that on trial now? dogma and kaarma were about to collide. coming up -- battle lines are drawn. and a revealing recording. >> and then i heard the kid yelling, no, no, no, no. please. >> did diren plead for his life? when "dateline" continues.

Meaning he couldn't have been charging toward markus kaarma. >> and then he's gotta do it one more time. he's got to make that final blow. >> reporter: and the final shot was straight to the head. but prosecutors weren't done. they had what they thought was explosive evidence. just before the trial began, a recording surfaced made the night of the shooting from a conversation an officer at the scene had with janelle. in it she reveals that just before the final shot, she heard diren beg for his life. >> and then i heard the kid yelling, no, no, no, no, please. and then -- but by then, there wa...

He has his 12-gauge in his hand, and he waits. >> reporter: to counter the defense's suggestion that diren was part of some ring of thieves targeting markus kaarma, investigators tracked down the teens who had hit kaarma's garage, the ones who took the cash, credit cards and -- >> he had a bong and a jar of weed and some alcohol. >> did you know a man named diren dede? >> not personally, no. >> to the best of your knowledge, was he involved in a burglary ring? >> no. >> reporter: so did kaarma really fear for his life that night? prosecutors said ballistics told the story. the first shot to hi...

You don't know who he is. you know it's somebody that you don't know. and they have crossed that invisible line from outdoors to indoors. and they are, by that definition alone, i would say, a threat to me. >> well, you've got to be able to articulate the threat. >> reporter: and kaarma told investigators there was a real threat. the garage was full of tools the intruder could grab and use against him. >> i imagined an ax flying through the air and hitting me in the skull. >> reporter: and kaarma said he was positive he heard that scraping sound just moments before he fired the shotgun. >> i'm...