and guess what, folks. if you really want to tap into your body's innate ability to heal-- dennis murphy: you can still find dr. teresa sievers even today on those youtube videos promoting health, healing, and a good life. she had helped so many, spreading her gospel. tragically, her message, like her life, cut short before she was finished. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." i had to do it. you're dead. rachel brady: ever since i heard it, it's been replaying in my head over and over.

[footsteps crunching] it was all very unbelievable. craig melvin: it happened on thanksgiving-- two teenagers missing. i just buried my head into my hands, and i started to cry. craig melvin: where they were and what they did would launch a terrifying case. why did this have to happen here? craig melvin: with a deadly end. nobody's leaving until we figure out what happened. craig melvin: a man at home, alone and afraid. what would you do if you felt in danger? they were really attacking his home. you have a right to protect your home, and to protect yourself. he planned, he prepared, and he was determined to kill. craig melvin: the most chilling detail of all, what you hear on tape. byron smith: i'm still shaking. [ominous music] hello, and welcome to dateline.

growing up, cousins nick brady and haile kifer were close. nick loved to joke, and haile loved to laugh. the teenagers were together that cold november day when tragedy struck. the horrible incident was all there for police to hear on a perfectly clear recording. so why was what happened so unclear, a mystery that would divide a community and spark a national debate? here's kate snow with "12 minutes on elm street." [sinister music] kate snow: 12 minutes-- not a long time. but for three people whose paths collided on thanksgiving day, 12 minutes was all it took for their lives to explode in a flash. byron smith: i refuse to live in fear. kate snow: 12 minutes that would haunt their families. kimberly brady: i dropped to my knees, and i was like, this can't be happening.

basically, why? kate snow: every second of those terrifying minutes would be fiercely debated. your natural instinct is to save yourself, however you need to do it, kate snow: a town divided over what happened inside this house on elm street. pete orput: a lot of weird things 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. [bell clanging] kate snow: but before all the fear and the fingerpointing, it was just another thanksgiving weekend in november 2012 in the small town of little falls, minnesota. everybody knows everybody, and everything about everybody. kate snow: 18-year-old rachel brady was spending the holiday with her 17-year-old brother, nick, and their 18-year-old cousin, haile kifer. rachel brady: we were always together. we would go camping. we were always in the water, always doing something. me and haile were always together.

kate snow: nick was the fun-loving one in the group. kimberly is his mom. kimberly brady: 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. kate snow: like all kids, they liked to tease each other, like when rachel called nick the nickname he'd had when he was a little boy, nickel baby. was that like just the family jokey nickname for him? nobody else called him that, just the family? oh, no, his, like, 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. kate snow: 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. she was bubbly and funny. rachel brady: she was very athletic in high school. she was in gymnastics and softball and track. kate snow: 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. would you cruise right down the main drag here? pretty much everywhere. so just spending the day with no cares. yeah. kate snow: they all spent the night together at a friend's apartment. on thanksgiving morning, nick and haile left around 11:00 am. rachel brady: and then they said they were gonna go to my mom and dad's house. kate snow: the plan was to meet later at grandma's house. but nick and haile never showed up. kimberly and rachel tried calling them. is it strange for nick to not answer his phone? absolutely. even if i would have, like, called over and over again, he would've called, or answered and been like, what do you want? strange for haile to not answer her phone? extremely. she would have never not answered my phone call. kate snow: adding to their worry was the weather. it had started snowing.

so i'm thinking, ok, the weather. maybe he got stranded somewhere. and i was hoping that he was just bearing it up and staying overnight in a dry-- a safe place. yeah, in a safe place. are you worried about a car accident? i was. very worried. kate snow: sure enough, on friday morning, there was frightening 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. we drove up and down the back roads, though. i mean-- we looked-- --up and down the highway, any way i could think of-- --through town-- --that might lead-- --anywhere. kate snow: 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. [inaudible] i started crying on one of them, and i was like, you better not be making fun of me. this better not be a joke. yeah. kate snow: before the day was over, the family would find out this was no joke. something terrible had happened to nick and haile, but it wasn't a car crash or an accident. it was something no one in little falls could have seen coming. man: i tried to be a good person. across town, police gather at a crime scene, and concerned neighbors fear the worst. coming up. just worry and panic. it's like something's wrong. craig melvin: someone else had also met with trouble that thanksgiving day-- the deadly kind. when dateline continues. ok, noah's going to make a fire. our job is to let him do it...by himself. what kind of wood you got there? gregggg! it is important to challenge

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vegas casino floors to your phone. the iconic cleopatra two slot featuring cleopatra's symbols that give you double down you didn't start a business just to keep the lights on. lucky for you, shopify built the just one-tapping, ridiculously fast-acting, sky-high sales stacking champion of checkouts. businesses that want to win, win with shopify. kate snow: the friday after thanksgiving, 2012, kimberly brady was worried sick that her son, nick, and her niece, haile, never showed up for thanksgiving dinner. they'd been missing for more than 24 hours. by friday afternoon, the family was frantic. so you decide to call the police? - we went in-- - we went in-- --to the sheriff's department-- --brought pictures right away. --and filled out missing persons reports for both of them. kate snow: as authorities processed those reports, three other sheriff's deputies were over on elm street, investigating something so troubling

they later called in a crime scene van. that got the attention of john and kathy lange, who saw the van go straight towards the house of their good friend, byron smith, a 64-year-old retired man living on his own. i was decorating the christmas tree. i saw a big, huge truck go down his road called the bemidji crime scene unit. and i shouted for john-- i think you were in the kitchen-- and i said, call byron's cell. something has happened. what did you worry, kathy? what did you think had happened? i thought he was dead. kate snow: kathy and john feared the worst for their friend, who'd seemed out of sorts in recent months. everything was fine when byron first moved back to his hometown of little falls about five years earlier after a career that took him all over the world with the us state department. kathy lange: he was talking about living in moscow and cairo and dakar. and it's amazing.

a worldly guy. very much so. a great conversationalist, and fun to talk with. kate snow: but recently, byron wasn't himself. his house had been broken into a few times, the thieves taking everything from money to precious family heirlooms. the langes say their friend, who had mentored boy scouts and let their son's rock band jam in his garage, had become afraid. he was acting real quiet, real scared. kate snow: and then, that crime scene van showed up outside byron's home, and kathy was sure her friend was in trouble. just worry and panic. it's like something's wrong. kate snow: she was right. something was wrong. burglars had struck again. this time, byron was home, and he had a gun. he'd managed to defend himself and survive the break-in. if you break into somebody's home, you better not have an expectation you're going to walk out alive, because the law permits them to shoot you. kate snow: michel wetzel was the morrison county sheriff.

byron told his deputies that he'd been in his basement in his reading chair when two intruders broke into his house and crept downstairs. byron shot both of them dead. minnesota law is clear on this thing. you have the right to use deadly force against another person if you believe your life or the life of another is in immediate jeopardy. kate snow: as investigators continued to secure the scene at byron's house, the sheriff's office was calling another family. kimberly brady had been frantically trying to find her son, nick, and her niece, haile. now, investigators knew what had happened to them. they drove out to speak with kimberly, and they brought a chaplain. kimberly brady: as soon as i saw them turn the corner, the-- something-- i knew he was gone. i didn't know how or why. and then all of a sudden, i remember the door opened and the chaplain came out. all i said was no. i don't really remember if i said anything else. and he's like, your son is dead.

kate snow: nick and haile were both dead. kimberly fell to her knees. and then the chaplain told her it was no accident. he was like, your son was shot. and i was like-- and then-- i mean, shot? that just wasn't-- doesn't fit. i just remember feeling like-- i said, what do you mean shot to death, when i could finally get something out. and he said, well, he was shot three times. and i was like, show? what do you mean shot three times? and that was bas-- i couldn't function. i couldn't really hear after that. were you there, rachel, during that? i walked in. and then my dad said that somebody-- somebody shot nickel baby. and i remember i just went right outside and i sat in the snow, and i just buried my head into my hands and i started to cry.

and then he tapped me on the shoulder and told me haile's gone, too. that's your brother and your best friend. do you remember what was racing through your head, rachel? basically, why? i guess we all just couldn't believe it was both at one time, so suddenly. kate snow: even harder to absorb, how and where nick and haile were shot. they were the intruders byron smith killed. it was all very unbelievable. kate snow: so what happened in that basement on elm street? the answer to that would lead to a heated debate. how far is too far when it comes to defending your home? when do you cross the line between victim and criminal? craig melvin: coming up, a grainy image captures a clue. is that nick? you see him on different cameras, different angles, walking around the house.

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his friends and neighbors, john and kathy lange, had no trouble believing it. kathy lange: well, it was scary. it was very personal to him because they were really attacking his home. kate snow: but the family of those intruders, they were in shock. i didn't believe it. i thought it was completely not right, or untrue. kate snow: teenage cousins nick brady and haile kifer had gone missing the day before, thanksgiving. now, as she learned the circumstances of her son's death, nick's mother had so many questions. how do you reconcile in your head your beautiful boy who loves the outdoors and what they're telling you, that he broke into somebody's house? i just-- i couldn't imagine it. it just was so not him. so you just couldn't reconcile? yeah, i just-- i had a lot of trouble kate snow: kimberly had never heard the name byron smith, but rachel had. i knew that my brother had worked for him in the summer, but i didn't know him at all.

kate snow: nick had once done yard work at byron smith's house. now, the sheriff had evidence of what he was doing there again. byron had set up surveillance cameras at his home, frightened after a string of break-ins. those cameras proved there was no mistake about the break-in. 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 nicholas brady's part. kate snow: 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 cell phone. it's haile. on the video, it shows that the female

had come walking up through the yard, up towards the house. kate snow: 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. kate snow: dylan lange is the son of byron's friends, john and kathy. in little falls, you have your regular high school crowd like the jocks and the goth kids. then you have a group that is misguided. kate snow: dylan didn't know haile well, but says, at school, nick was no angel. what did you know about those two teenagers? i knew that nick was aggressive. he would be the kid who would push you up against the locker and-- kind of a bully? right. he was a bully. kate snow: and as it turned out, a thief. after the shootings, authorities determined that nick had been behind one of those previous burglaries at byron's house. just a month earlier, he and a friend broke through this door,

and stole thousands of dollars in cash and priceless family heirlooms, and more disturbingly, two guns. they took things that were really important to-- man: yes. - --him personally. and then when he took the guns, he thought he was gonna get shot by his own guns. he was extremely afraid. kate snow: to sergeant luberts, it all looked like a classic case of troublemaking kids crossing a line into dangerous criminal behavior. jeremy luberts: you have two teenagers that seem to be running kind of rampant. you can obviously see that they had a change in their lives. kate snow: 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. kate snow: 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 emotionally. kate snow: at first, even nick's mom, while she didn't want to believe much of what she was learning about her son, tried to imagine herself in byron's shoes. kimberly brady: i don't believe that breaking and entering is right, and i don't-- wouldn't have expected it out of my son. kate snow: it looked like a tragedy all around-- two intruders, and a fearful homeowner with no choice but to shoot them. we know you have a right to protect your home and to protect yourself. kate snow: but a quick survey of the scene told sheriff wetzel that the teenagers were unarmed. as with any shooting, it would require more investigation. michel wetzel: it would be ordinary with two people dead in a home that nobody's leaving until we figure out what happened. kate snow: beginning with one question, a pretty big one.

why in the world are we only hearing about the shooting of two people in a house a day later? kate snow: it turns out sergeant luberts and other deputies had rushed to byron smith's house friday afternoon, only to learn that the break-in and shootings happened thursday, on thanksgiving day. jeremy luberts: i asked him, i said, why didn't you call law enforcement? and he tells me, i didn't want to bother you guys on thanksgiving day. kate snow: that struck the sheriff as extremely odd. nobody worries about wrecking our thanksgiving. they don't worry about wrecking our day. kate snow: so the intruders had been dead for 24 hours when byron called a neighbor for help and asked him to call the sheriff's office. when you found out that byron smith had waited 24 hours. my mind was then, why? if he was so scared, wouldn't you be on the phone? i mean, because those kids had families, too, that were waiting. and then for him to say he didn't want to bother anybody on thanksgiving-- yeah.

--really? it became clearer and clearer and clearer that there were some things that were strange about this case. kate snow: investigators were about to learn a lot more about that shooting in the house on elm street. and what happened next would tear this town apart. craig melvin: coming up. byron smith's story-- was it all adding up? when dateline continues. when you live with diabetes, progress is... having your coffee like you like it without an audience. ♪♪ [silence] the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor tracks your glucose in real time so everyone else doesn't have to, and over time it can help lower your a1c confident choices for more control of your life. this is progress. learn more and try for free at freestylelibre.us ♪♪ gold bond believes touch says everything.

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wildfires. at least 13 others are considered missing. so far, 37,000 acres have burned across los angeles while evacuations have expanded. officials are making progress containing the palisades fire, the largest of the five so far, and special counsel jack smith resigning from the justice department ahead of trump's inauguration. he completed two criminal investigations into the president elect, including his

alleged interference in the 2020 election. smith's findings are set to be released in the coming set to be released in the coming days. for now, welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. was byron smith justified in killing two teenaged intruders? nick brady and haile kifer were both unarmed when he shot them. also troubling to police, the 64-year-old waited a full day to call for help. now, smith was about to give detectives a chilling account of what happened in his basement, and it would turn this case on its head. here again is kate snow with "12 minutes on elm street." kate snow: nick brady and haile kifer had broken into byron smith's house. the frightened homeowner said he'd shot them in a moment of self-defense. but investigators had questions for byron, so sergeant luberts escorted him down to headquarters right away

that friday. i just wanted his story. you know, i wanted to find out the rest of the facts of what happened at the house. kate snow: byron explained how he'd been terrified ever since that break-in a month earlier, when two of his guns were stolen. byron wasn't home during those other break-ins, but this time, he was. as seen on this home security camera, he said he'd moved his truck a few blocks away that morning so he could clean his garage. the teens must have thought he wasn't there. byron told him how he was in the basement when he heard the first intruder break in upstairs and head down toward him.

it was nick. byron shot him three times. asking. the threat? the previous losses are. i spent 20 years overseas, a couple of years in overseas, a couple of years in bangkok, 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. kate snow: 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. was haile really laughing as he shot her? to the sergeant, it seemed like such a bizarre detail. and then, byron told them this. he shot haile six times in all. and with that, the investigators came to believe this was something other than a simple case of self-defense.

hand. she wasn't actually, i don't know if she had a weapon in her hand until later. i in her hand until later. i wasn't looking at her hands, there was certainly a continuation of the use of deadly force after it appeared to us the threat had stopped. and that made us believe that this needs to be looked at by the prosecuting attorney. kate snow: byron smith was arrested that day, but later released on bond. a grand jury was convened to look at the case. in little falls, his friends were shocked that authorities could believe byron was anything but an innocent victim. it was ridiculous that he would be this cold-blooded killer. i'm like, really? he's a quiet, soft-spoken person. i just didn't fathom it. kate snow: while byron was free on bond, his friends the langes say he couldn't bear to go back to his own home, so they took him in. i could hear him in his room many, many nights, i'm so sorry, i feel so bad, i didn't want to hurt anybody.

i could hear him in there crying. kate snow: the case quickly became a big controversy in little falls, minnesota. did people take sides? absolutely. people became more opinionated about what happened. some people would come up to me, he's going to prison, he shouldn't have done that. and i said, well, you haven't heard the whole story. i think that byron's got a lot of support in this area. kate snow: bill anderson was byron's neighbor, the same one who called authorities the day after the shootings. myself, would i have done the same thing that mr. smith did? no doubt in my mind. no doubt in my mind. it seemed like a big box of puzzle pieces. kate snow: prosecutors pete orput and brent wartner were in charge of evaluating the case against byron. and they knew it was controversial from the start. pete orput: when brent and i got involved in it, the emails started, the phone calls, castigating us for taking this. after all, doesn't a homeowner have

a right to defend his dwelling? you know, i didn't argue with people. i just said, well, just stay open and let the evidence come out, and then let's see if you hold that same view. kate snow: after looking at all the evidence, the prosecutors believed there was a strong case. the moment nick broke the window and entered into that house, didn't byron smith then have the right to defend himself? yes. yes, he did. but that's not what he did. he went way, way beyond defending himself. kate snow: that grand jury in minnesota agreed. in april of 2013, five months after the shootings, byron smith was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder. now, there would be a trial in the case everyone in town was talking about, with revelations from both sides. craig melvin: coming up, murder or self-defense? why did he wait so long before calling authorities? fear. craig melvin: the explosive debate heads into court,

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♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. msnbc here. >> at home tonight, news of every imaginable shape and size. a lot of the big news in the country and in the world right now is still developing tonight. now is the time. so we're going to do it. settle in. i have a to do it. settle in. i have a story to tell you. watch kate snow: byron smith's first-degree murder trial got underway in april 2014, and just like the town itself carved in two by the mighty mississippi river, the people of little falls, minnesota found themselves divided. on one bank stood those who saw byron as a cold-blooded killer who fired nine shots at two unarmed teenagers. when you're talking about multiple shots, down on the ground, right away it jumps out at you, you know,

hey, this is premeditated murder. kate snow: on the other bank were those who viewed smith as a man with every right to defend himself and his home against intruders. they weren't invited for thanksgiving dinner. there wasn't a table set for them. they didn't come through the door, but they certainly found a window to come in. kate snow: but nick's mother, kimberly brady, was determined, even through her own grief, not to make up her mind until she'd heard all the facts. kimberly brady: i kept an open mind because, if he was fearful for his life, i couldn't fault him for defending himself. i waited until i heard all the evidence. kate snow: the evidence, said byron smith's defense attorney steve meshbesher, would show his client had done nothing wrong. steve meshbesher: this is a case about a big misunderstanding. this is about byron smith being accused of a crime he did not commit. did you believe that byron smith was justified in shooting

nick brady and haile kifer? yes. it's not something he'd wanted to do, but he didn't ask them to burglarize his home in a violent way on thanksgiving. they chose to do that, and he reacted. kate snow: so the defense came to court confident a jury would see it that way. in minnesota, as i understand it, you have the right to protect your life, you have the right to protect your home, your property, as long as it's reasonable. if somebody breaks into your home and commits a felony offense in your home, you can kill that threat. kate snow: meshbesher said that everything byron did that thanksgiving day and the next was evidence that he was truly terrified inside his own home. why did he wait so long before calling authorities? fear. he was afraid there was a third or fourth or fifth person. so he's afraid of the backyard, the front yard, the stairway, the door.

he's just in utter fear. and he goes in a closet and hides in his own house until the fear subsides. kate snow: as for smith's calm demeanor and the matter-of-fact way in which he described the killings-- --the defense said he was just a man trying to help the authorities any way he could. on the exterior, he appears to be calm. but he's talking about how frightened he is internally. he's trying to explain to the police what happened. he's trying to help them solve what occurred. kate snow: but would the defense be able to convince the jury that byron smith's own account of the shootings, how he gave haley a self-described finishing shot, was really justified? from a human standpoint, it just sounds so cold-blooded. it does. and i had to deal with the way it sounded.

but it's not evidence of what he's thinking. it's evidence of emotion. it's not evidence of murder. kate snow: meshbesher thought his strongest evidence to justify the shootings was the fact that nick brady had broken into byron smith's house before, had even stolen guns. so byron had every reason to fear for his life. you wanted to show them that these were kids that were up to no good. no, no, that's not what i wanted to do. i wanted the jury to see the truth, rather than just see a painted picture that the media was playing of their high school photographs. kate snow: but the judge said testimony about nick's involvement in that previous break-in was irrelevant and inadmissible. meshbesher also couldn't say in court that there was evidence that nick and haile together had robbed another house, too. unfortunately, the judge would not allow that evidence to come in. and i thought he was making a grave error. how many witnesses did you have lined up who weren't allowed to speak?

about a half a dozen. kate snow: and so byron smith's friends watching in court could only hope that the jury would see things as they did, that he was a scared man who defended his life and property. we knew him as our friend byron. so it was ridiculous to us for authorities calling him a cold-blooded killer. kate snow: it would be an uphill battle in the court of public opinion, thought prosecutors. they knew they had the burden of proof. i've tried a lot of murder cases, and this one in particular seemed like a real challenge. why? because a lot of people thought we'd lose it. a lot of people saw this as a referendum on whether it's ok to protect your property and protect your life. you don't see it that way? not this case. not these facts. kate snow: but to prove murder in the first degree, the state would have to show that byron acted not just with excessive, unreasonable force, but also with premeditation. and while the defense may have had a lot of townspeople on its side,

the prosecution had something else. a piece of evidence they felt would sway any juror to see byron smith not as a fearful victim, but as a calculating killer. did byron tell investigators that he had made audiotapes? no, he did not. craig melvin: coming up. the revelation that stopped everyone cold. can you ever erase that in your memory? not ever. craig melvin: when dateline continues. [sinister music] (♪♪) a single touch can say a thousand words. it says... i see you. i feel you. i got you. and i'm never letting go. (♪♪) ever. (♪♪)

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something you can sign and make kate snow: there are people who think byron smith is a hero. what do you say to them? i say he's a murderer. and murderers can't be heroes. kate snow: in a sharply divided minnesota courtroom, the prosecution argued that byron smith was no fearful, innocent victim, but an angry man bent on violent confrontation. he told investigators from the beginning that he was sitting, reading a book in the basement, that he was caught unaware. you don't buy any of that? no. not at all. kate snow: the prosecutors said they had evidence that it was premeditated murder. they told the jury byron had set a trap for the burglars. remember the story about moving his truck to clean the garage? the prosecutors said that was a lie, that byron

had, in fact, moved the truck to make it look like he wasn't home. you think byron wanted to catch the people who had been breaking into his house. clearly. he planned, he prepared, and he was determined to kill whoever is breaking into his house and stealing his property. kate snow: the prosecution said byron was in the basement not to read a book, but to wait like a hunter. it just seemed like byron smith was deer hunting, like a lot of folks do in minnesota, where you get in your stand, and you wait and you wait, and when a deer comes by, you shoot and kill it. and it just seemed like that's what he did with these kids. kate snow: but could they prove it? turns out the prosecutors had something they'd never encountered in nearly half a century of combined trial work. do you remember when you first listened to it? i do. and it knocked me out. i've never been able to hear a murder actually occurring.

kate snow: byron smith had recorded the break-in and the shootings. investigators found this digital audio recorder on a bookshelf in the basement. it had captured more than six hours' worth of audio that day. you ended up with a trove of information, his own words on tape. indeed. we did. kate snow: here is byron smith, shortly before the break-in, talking to himself. pete orput: in your left eye. why would he say that a half hour before anyone came over? well, when you go through the autopsy photographs, you see that he shot haile kifer in her left eye. he was planning where he was gonna shoot an intruder. not just shooting them, but where. where in the face is he gonna shoot them. kate snow: then it sounds like byron is planning not just the shooting, but also his defense. he practices contacting a lawyer.

10 minutes later, the practicing is over. the recorder captures something real. how quickly did everything go down that day? 12 minutes. kate snow: 12 minutes from the first shot fired at nick brady to the ninth and final one fired at haile kifer. it was frightening. kate snow: 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 need to hear the whole story to understand it, i think, in this case. you can't just make a snap judgment. [glass shattering] kate snow: this is the sound of nick entering the home. [floorboards creaking] walking down the stairs to the basement. [floorboard creaking] and as he's going down the stairs,

you can hear him get shot. kate snow: we won't play that part of the recording, but listen to what byron says after shooting nick three times. then there's a rustling sound that the prosecution says is byron unfolding a tarp that he uses to move nick's body. you can then hear byron reload his gun. [reloading gun] 10 minutes go by, then the recording picks up a whisper. it's haile coming into the house, looking for her cousin. so she comes in and goes right to the basement, starts walking down. and that's when he shoots her. kate snow: here on the recording is what the prosecution says is a pivotal moment. in his interview with investigators, byron had said he felt threatened by haile, and that she'd been laughing at him when he fired. but on that audio recording of the shooting, which, again, we

have edited, the prosecution says haile clearly sounds terrified. pete orput: she's screaming in a high pitch, saying oh my god, oh my god. kate snow: and after he's done shooting, this is what byron says. those in court saw byron smith wipe away tears as the audio played. there was stunned silence, save for the quiet sobs from nick and haile's families. can you ever erase that from your memory? not ever. i think 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. kate snow: but the prosecution wasn't done with that recording. because byron continued to talk to himself after the teens were dead.

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, let alone two precious kids. and i don't believe he was scared. i believe it was premeditated murder. kate snow: but in court, the defense said that recording, as disturbing as it is, proves no such thing. rather, it shows a man quite possibly driven mad with fear. he's talking to himself, mumbling things. a lot of things didn't make sense. he sounds, frankly, like someone who is maybe losing his mind, someone who's-- or lost their mind.

he simply had no ability to deal with reality at that time. kate snow: after a week of testimony, the case went to the jury. it was anyone's guess which portrait of byron smith those 12 people would believe, the cold-blooded killer lying in wait or the terrified man under siege in his own home. what were you thinking as the jury went out to deliberate? i gave it all to god. i was pretty peaceful. kate snow: just put your faith in him. i did. and waited. and waited. kate snow: it wasn't a long wait. the jury was back in less than four hours. the verdict, guilty of first-degree murder for killing both nick brady and haile kifer. i waited, i heard, then i believed, and then it was said. i was very happy to see him taken away. but there was no winners. doesn't give you your brother and your best friend back.

exactly. i put my head in my hands and went, thank god for them, you know, that they got that. the families. yes. kate snow: but byron's supporters felt the opposite of relief. shocked. stunned. it was such a one-sided trial. it was so unfair. kate snow: 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. [sad music] kate snow: 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 of it. i would have loved to see my brother hold her. he would have been uncle nick. rachel brady: uncle nickel baby. and that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [sinister music] . i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." long would you wait to get justice for a friend? he killed her. he needed to pay for it. craig melvin (voiceover): they'd been college roommates, super close, until that terrible night.