Opening statements to begin in Montana killing of German teen

[December 04, 2014]  By Lori Grannis
 
 MISSOULA, Mont. (Reuters) - Opening statements were due to begin on Thursday in the trial of a Montana man who has admitted to fatally shooting a German exchange student he believed to be a burglar, in a case hinging on what constitutes justifiable use of a gun in self-defense.

Markus Kaarma, 30, is charged with deliberate homicide in the death of 17-year-old Diren Dede of Hamburg, whom authorities said was slain while apparently scavenging garages for alcohol in the defendant's Missoula neighborhood.

A jury of eight women and four men was selected this week to hear the case, which drew expressions of outrage from officials in Germany over the killing of an unarmed teenager.

Kaarma has pleaded not guilty and is expected to invoke his rights under Montana’s "castle doctrine," a law allowing the use of deadly force against a home invasion if the person reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent an assault.
 

On the night of the shooting in April, Dede and a fellow exchange student, Robby Pazmino of Ecuador, approached Kaarma's open garage, and Dede entered, while Pazmino remained on the street, he told police in an affidavit.

Alerted to the teens' presence by motion sensors and a video monitor installed days earlier, Kaarma walked outside his house and fired four shotgun blasts into his darkened garage, killing Dede, according to prosecutors.

Defense lawyers have said Kaarma, a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, feared for the safety of his family and acted in self-defense. If convicted, Kaarma would face a sentence ranging from 10 to 100 years in prison.

The slain youth's father, Celal Dede, has suggested to a German news agency that U.S. gun culture was partly to blame for his son’s death. Both of Dede's parents were present in court this week as proceedings in the trial got under way.

Julia Reinhardt, a spokeswoman for the German Consulate's office in San Francisco, has said that the Dede family and its lawyers will wait for the outcome of the trial in Montana before acting on an independent investigation.

“There is a provision in German law that allows for crimes that affect Germans abroad -– whether perpetrator or victim -– to be also covered in trial in Germany,” Reinhardt said.

The Montana trial is expected to last a little more than two weeks.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Mark Potter)

[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.