I feel sorry for the kids and their families, but they made the decision to break into this guy's house. It doesn't sound like it was their first time in there either.
As for the guy? He seems a bit off. Executing them when they seem to be pretty clearly neutralized as threats? Claiming she laughed at him? I have a very hard time to believe after she'd already taken a shot, and seen that her friend/cousin whatever, was also shot... or dead at that point, the idea that she'd laugh? In all that pain and fear? Only if she was very high on something. Which maybe she was... I don't know.
It's a tragic story and a messed up situation. I think he should have let them live after they were neutralized, but perhaps they still posed a threat *shrug*
Tragic and strange as it may be, I don't think it makes sense to charge someone with "murder" for killing home invaders in their home. Unless he straight up gassed them to sleep, then they woke up hours later tied up in some torture chamber in his basement... okay then it'd be murder. But he shot them, with a legally owned firearm, in his residence, and it all took place within what, a couple minutes or less? I don't think he should face criminal charges. They were the criminals, not him.
I do feel that it sounds like he took too much pleasure in it, displayed insufficient mercy, and admitted too much. But I don't think that equals "he is TEH MURDERER!"
I read the second linked article just now and yea, I think the guy sounds like an odd duck.
But think about it this way... at the end of the day, they were in his HOUSE, he was ALONE. They CREATED THE SITUATION. They were very likely drugged up... who's to say if he hadn't had a gun, the two wouldn't have overpowered him and killed him to prevent him reporting their burglary?
It was a situation not of his creation. If someone goes out and kills people for no reason, that's a murder. That's someone who needs to go to jail. If someone defends their life and property, but does so in a way that seems less than ideal, that was maybe more brutal than it needed to be... is that really a murder?
Is it really right for this man to spend the rest of his years in prison because he is odd, and handled a situation he didn't create poorly? How many of us, or how many on that jury, will ever or have ever experienced a situation where we are alone in our home, someone or multiple someones breaks in, and we're cornered in the basement with no exit vector... and then they start descending the stairs toward us? At the time he first shot the male kid, he probably had no idea the age of this person, whether they had a gun drawn (sounds like he could only see the lower part of his body) etc... he may have been terrified.
Imagine for a moment it's a 64 year old woman, yes the execution aspect was fucked up. But again, should he really spend the rest of his life in prison because he handled a situation someone else created, where they broke into HIS HOME and threatened HIS LIFE (as far as he knew) poorly? How many of us would be cool and collected enough, while alone, if multiple parties broke into our home and cornered us, to do everything exactly right? I know I'm not the type of person who'd execute someone who was helpless... but some people are heartless, cold people. That's not illegal. It's only illegal if you convey your heartless coldness into going out and murdering people. He didn't do that. They had the bad luck to break into a house owned by a heartless, cold, weird man. Again, being heartless, cold, and weird is not illegal. They shouldn't have broken in.
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