Byron Smith, who was sentenced earlier this year to life in prison for murdering two teenage intruders inside his Little Falls, Minn., home, was ordered Tuesday to pay restitution to the families of his victims.
According to an order filed in Morrison County District Court, Smith must pay more than $21,000 to the families of Nicholas Brady, 17, and Haile Kifer, 18, who were both killed when Smith shot them in 2012 on Thanksgiving Day when they broke into his house on the Mississippi River.
Following an April jury trial, the families had submitted restitution requests totaling more than $42,000 for such out-of-pocket expenses as funeral costs and mileage to and from court hearings.
Smith had challenged the restitution, and in an affidavit, he claimed that he lost about $53,000 as a result of previous burglaries that Brady was involved in, some of which was recouped through insurance. The affidavit also pointed out that there was a memorial fund to help pay for the victims' funeral costs.
While Judge Douglas P. Anderson decided that Smith's losses didn't offset the restitution, the judge said that costs of the headstones, which made up nearly half of the families' reported expenses, were only estimates so they shouldn't be included in the restitution awards. Anderson also reduced the amount of restitution slightly based on how much money was in the memorial fund available to the families.
Brady's family is supposed to receive $9,577 and Kifer's family is to receive $11,844.
Defense attorney Steve Meshbesher didn't think the judge went far enough in his reductions.
"[Smith] should not be paying restitution when he was the victim of a crime," he said Tuesday night.
