00:00:00
He was definitely charismatic. He lived every single day. He knew that it was dangerous, but no one ever knew that someone would die over it.
00:00:16
He was the new kid in town. Super popular. All about adventure. This kid was like, awesome.
00:00:24
He just jumped right into the culture. Kind of like to show off a little bit to the girls.
00:00:28
They were the neighbors just down the block. A family in fear. They had had their vehicles broken too.
00:00:35
She was scared. Someone had been sneaking into their home. And now someone was in their garage.
00:00:42
This was a burglar who had broken in. I'm sitting there panicking like he's coming at me.
00:00:46
In a flash, it was over. I just got shot. That charismatic kid dead on the floor.
00:00:52
That's terrible. I think I screamed for hours. What had happened in that garage that night?
00:00:58
It was just like the last person that would come to my mind. A neighbor protecting his home or preparing a trap?
00:01:05
Makes the statement, it's showtime. It's showtime. Exactly. A teenager, a father, a murderer.
00:01:12
No one would be the same. We are all like taken aback. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.
00:01:21
Here's Josh Makowitz with Deadly Exchange. It's a dilemma that confronts every teenager, how to simultaneously fit in with your friends
00:01:34
and rebel against everyone else. That two-step is made a little easier by the knowledge, maybe the certainty, that you're
00:01:43
going to live forever. Kids do dumb stuff all the time. And so sneaking out of the house in the dead of night to meet other teenagers, to drink,
00:01:52
party or just hang out, well, that's nothing new. Usually teens sneak back home safely.
00:01:59
This wasn't one of those times. I thought it was some kind of like joke and I like just
00:02:05
couldn't believe it really. I was just freaking out and I was like, it can't be, it can't be.
00:02:11
It was April of 2014 when two bright foreign exchange students living in Montana slipped
00:02:17
out of their home. Oh, he's laying face down. He's barely breathing. Just minutes later,
00:02:22
Their amazing American adventure came to a sudden and tragic end. And where is he bleeding from?
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Everywhere. He was so horrific. No one ever knew that someone would die over it.
00:02:36
It was just the worst thing that could have ever happened to us. It all began so differently for Deer and De-De, a dream come true.
00:02:46
He was an exchange student from Hamburg, Germany, excited to soak up anything and everything American.
00:02:54
At 17, Deeren had landed in a special corner of the West, Missoula, Montana. He was definitely charismatic.
00:03:03
Dana, Anna, and Chance were three of Deeren's closest friends at Big Sky High School.
00:03:09
He was way different than all of the other foreign exchange students that usually come.
00:03:14
He was really outspoken and outgoing, and he just jumped right into the culture.
00:03:20
He wanted to do everything there was to do in Missoula. And he was a terrific athlete.
00:03:25
Mm-hmm. It was no coincidence that Jay Bostrom, the teacher who recruited Deer into Big Sky,
00:03:33
also happened to be the school's soccer coach. No holds barred, just go get it done.
00:03:38
And when Deer in played, that's how he played. I think the guys were immediately like, this guy's cool, kind of a badass, you know.
00:03:46
He was like a pretty stocky kid, liked to lay people out. Yeah, he was tough, for sure. He threw down.
00:03:54
And according to his friends, Deren's soccer skills and his good looks definitely helped him with the opposite sex.
00:04:03
He was always talking to girls here in America and the girls back home in Germany.
00:04:07
A man of the world. Exactly. The other soccer girls always said that he would never miss a chance to take his shirt off when he was running around the field
00:04:15
because they knew that he was going to put on a show for them. Deeran lived with his host parents, Randy and Kate, in the Prospect neighborhood, a hilly subdivision of Missoula.
00:04:27
He was just such a terrific kid, you could see that right off the bat. And he called you mom and dad?
00:04:33
He did. He really became our son. There was no doubt about it. But Dieren was more than just a fun kid.
00:04:39
He was engaged in the world. This was not your typical American teenager who kind of wants to talk about, you know, sports stars and, you know, maybe the latest fashion.
00:04:51
No, not at all. No, it's like, so what do you think about the situation in Ukraine?
00:04:58
By the end of the school year in 2014, Dieren had a solid circle of friends. He was tightest with another exchange student, this one from Ecuador, Robbie Pazmino.
00:05:10
We had so many things in common, the same personality with the same wishes and dreams.
00:05:17
They were packaged you. You see one, you're going to see the other. Oh, yeah. Saturday, April 26th was no different.
00:05:24
The boys spent the evening playing video games and listening to music in Randy and Kate's basement.
00:05:30
I went down 10.30 or so that night, told him maybe crank the music volume down a little bit.
00:05:41
But around midnight, Deeren was bored, restless, and suggested he and Robbie take a walk.
00:05:47
And I was kind of, I'm just really tired, Deeren. Like, come on, it's like, okay.
00:05:53
So while Kate and Randy slept upstairs Robbie and Deeren slipped out the back door for a walk around the neighborhood They headed up the nearby hill and then turned onto Deer Canyon Road
00:06:06
Then, Robbie says, Deeren suddenly walked off in a different direction. And Robbie lost sight of him.
00:06:12
I was like, he's not coming. I continue walking. Robbie says he called out to Deeren, but there was no answer.
00:06:19
So he kept walking, figuring Deeren would catch up. That is when I heard someone yelling, you're there, I see you there, something like that.
00:06:29
After that, just the shots, like three or four shots, and I just started running.
00:06:38
Gunshots in a quiet residential neighborhood. A now terrified Robbie ran back home.
00:06:45
He was faster than I am. I said, he's probably coming. I was almost sure that he was coming.
00:06:51
But Deeren wouldn't return, and what happened to the German exchange student would simultaneously make headlines around the world and get Americans asking, how far can you go to protect your home and family?
00:07:08
When we come back... 911, what are you reporting? A robbery. An urgent call to 911.
00:07:16
Somebody entered and talked to the last. Short or fired. And an urgent question, where was Dearen?
00:07:24
That's terrible. I think I screamed for hours. I was like, there's no way possible. Nothing like this has remotely happened.
00:07:45
Sunday morning was less than an hour old. when the sound of gunshots ricocheted through the Prospect neighborhood of Missoula, Montana.
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911, what are you reporting? A robbery. Okay, what's going on? Somebody entered into our garage.
00:08:05
Shot or fired. Come on, man. Someone just got shot. A robbery was rare in Prospect, but a shooting was unheard of.
00:08:14
Dash cams captured the chaos as first responders raced to the sea. It was all happening just a few hundred feet from where foreign exchange student Deer and Dede lived with his host family.
00:08:29
I kind of woke up with a start. Heard four loud pops, bang, bang, bang, you know, fairly close together, and then a pause and then another bang.
00:08:39
Randy heard the sirens and got out of bed. So I went downstairs just to make sure I could lay my hands on Robbie and Dearen.
00:08:48
And he came downstairs with me and was like, where's Dearen? And he said he didn't know.
00:08:53
He didn't know? I thought that was kind of weird. And I looked in the rec room and didn't see Dearen.
00:09:01
So I came back to him and I said, what's going on? Where's Dearen? Robbie fessed up. He and Dearen had sneaked out.
00:09:08
He told Randy how Dearen had walked off on his own. And then Robbie said he'd heard gunshots.
00:09:15
Alarmed, Randy woke up his wife, and the three of them went to Deer Canyon Road.
00:09:21
How far away from your house is this? 80 yards, something like that, directly above.
00:09:26
It's just the next street above ours. So this is a neighbor's house. It's a neighbor's house.
00:09:30
But when they got there, police stopped them. We were just hoping Deer would just walk out somewhere,
00:09:37
you know, show up and come out the door. Okay. I walked up to the police officer, gave him a name and description,
00:09:48
and that's when she kind of went, well, just wait here for a second, and then came back and said, I think you guys need to go to the hospital,
00:09:58
and that it wasn't good. And as soon as she said that, I thought, gosh, we just passed an ambulance running up there,
00:10:08
and he must have been in the ambulance. What happened on that quiet street? Did Deeren and Robbie stumble into a burglary in progress?
00:10:17
Or some violent home invasion? The police asked Robbie to answer some questions.
00:10:25
While Kate and Randy rushed to the hospital. It wasn't long after we got there that the ER doc came out
00:10:32
and explained that his wounds were fatal and that he was no longer alive. Terrible feeling.
00:10:39
It was horrible. I went outside the hospital many times and just screamed. And I...
00:10:45
It was... We lost our son, too. Sorry. When they brought us in to identify his body,
00:11:02
it was horrific. Looking at his beautiful body, no longer complete. That's terrible.
00:11:10
I think I screamed for hours. Deeran Day-Day would never make it to his 18th birthday.
00:11:18
I thought it was a joke. I was like, there's no way possible. Nothing like this has remotely happened to me or like kind of anything in Missoula growing up.
00:11:27
And so it was just, it was obviously a shock. It was just like the last person that would come to my mind, I guess.
00:11:34
Deren's soccer coach assumed that whatever happened to his star player, it wasn't Deren's fault.
00:11:41
I'm trying to imagine, did he go to a party and get shot by another kid? Was he downtown Missoula and got in a scuffle?
00:11:50
I didn't understand it. I was like, what do you mean he was shot? I didn't understand it.
00:11:55
So what did happen Police on the scene quickly concluded only one person was shot The intruder mentioned in that 911 call Who got shot The robber He sadly injured
00:12:07
Okay. So they entered your garage and who shot him? My husband. And cops quickly learned something those who thought they knew Deeren well could scarcely imagine.
00:12:19
Deeren wasn't a random innocent victim. The young exchange student was the apparent opposite.
00:12:26
He was the burglar. It's like someone's trying to break into your car right now.
00:12:30
Police were about to hear a story from the man holding the gun that night. A story of terror and a family under siege.
00:12:39
And we've been sketched out. We don't feel safe. I'm on edge about everything. Coming up.
00:12:46
They had had their vehicles broke into. She was scared. two frightened homeowners victimized two times before.
00:12:55
What had happened inside that garage? I'm sitting there panicking, you know, like he's coming at me.
00:13:02
When Dateline continues. A high school exchange student from Germany had been shot and killed
00:13:18
during an apparent burglary inside a neighbor's garage in the quiet town of Missoula, Montana.
00:13:26
Now, Duran Dede was dead, and police were investigating. Does that happen a lot here?
00:13:32
People shoot burglars who are in their homes? No, it doesn't. Missoula Police Department Detective Guy Baker had the case.
00:13:40
Soon, he was interviewing the man who'd pulled the trigger. Hi, Marcus. Hello, sir.
00:13:45
I'm Guy Baker. I'm a detective. The homeowner was Marcus Karma. Karma and his common-law wife, Janelle Flager, had just moved to Missoula.
00:13:54
They were looking for a quiet, safe, and kid-friendly place to raise their child.
00:14:00
Police spoke with Janelle at the scene and recorded their talk with Karma at the station.
00:14:07
So what we want to talk about is what happened tonight at your house. The couple told investigators the story actually began with a burglary three weeks earlier.
00:14:19
And then, just ten days after that, the burglars returned. Somebody had trespassed in their vehicles and in their garage, which was unlocked.
00:14:28
Cash, credit cards, and a cell phone were taken. The couple filed a police report, but the burglaries remained unsolved.
00:14:37
Now, Marcus Karma said he feared they were being targeted. it. We've pretty much been living in fear and it sucks. And to know that we're being watched and
00:14:47
targeted and knowing how hard it is for you guys to actually catch a burglar with no evidence.
00:14:53
Karma said they no longer felt safe in their own home and were terrified they'd be robbed again.
00:14:59
We've been sketched out. We don't feel safe. I'm on edge about everything. The couple even emailed
00:15:05
their neighbors to warn them about the string of burglaries and to suggest everyone lock their cars
00:15:11
and garages. Having somebody burglarize you is a terrible feeling and it does leave people feeling
00:15:17
violated and angry. Yes, I would agree. So that's not uncommon for people to be upset and extremely vigilant after a burglary. I'd agree it's not. The more time that passed with
00:15:29
the burglars at large, the more fearful Marcus and Janelle said they became, in part because
00:15:35
he was a seasonal firefighter and would have to travel for work soon, leaving mother and
00:15:41
child alone for months. She was scared that Marcus was going to be going off on a seasonal employment here soon.
00:15:50
So Karma told police his wife decided to put together a homemade security system that would
00:15:56
warn them if another intruder showed up. She's got motion sensor one, motion sensor two.
00:16:03
She had placed a baby monitor on the east wall of the garage. A video baby monitor.
00:16:09
Once the alert sounded due to the motion detector, then they could see what the baby monitor could see.
00:16:16
All of that was connected through a smartphone app. So when the motion sensors were triggered, an alert would allow them to view live video of their garage.
00:16:26
That Saturday night, Karma said they were trying to relax after putting their son to bed.
00:16:32
I had recorded the movie Lincoln. We were watching that about a third of the way through that.
00:16:38
Not sure what the time was. It was dark outside. But, you know, we went outside and had a smoke in the garage like we always do.
00:16:46
We would usually leave the garage door open to air it out. But five minutes later, an alert from the motion sensors.
00:16:53
Someone was in the driveway. An intruder. Perhaps the same one who'd targeted them before.
00:17:01
These photos are from the home security system. That's Deren entering the garage.
00:17:07
Marcus Karma says he grabbed a loaded shotgun he had for protection. I'm sitting there with the shotgun in my hand. I'm staring at the lock on the front door.
00:17:15
And I can't tell if it's locked or unlocked. And I'm starting to shake at that point.
00:17:21
The adrenaline's coming like, oh my God, these guys actually came back to the house.
00:17:27
Karma said his wife stayed back while he went out the front door and turned toward the garage.
00:17:33
A few quick steps around my front. You saw where my truck was parked, pretty much with my butt touching my grill guard.
00:17:41
That's where I stood. And then she flipped on the light. Karma told the detectives he was blinded by the sudden light
00:17:50
and realized the only way for the intruder to get away was to go past him. Then I heard something move like a piece of metal hit the cement Either that or a piece of metal hit a piece of metal It sounded like either a metal wrench being picked up or maybe the axis
00:18:11
So Marcus Karma says he did the only thing he could to protect himself. Immediately, I fired high up into the right corner of the garage.
00:18:22
Here I am looking at my garage. I think I, in total, four rounds were shot all directly.
00:18:29
One, two, three, four. If I live in Montana, what right do I have to shoot someone who has entered my house?
00:18:37
You have the right to use any force necessary in defense of yourself, but no greater force.
00:18:42
Okay, but I mean, this was a burglar who had broken in. You don't know who he is.
00:18:47
You know it's somebody that you don't know. And they have crossed that invisible line from outdoors to indoors.
00:18:53
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.
00:19:03
And Karma told investigators there was a real threat. The garage was full of tools the intruder could grab and use against him.
00:19:11
I imagine an axe flying through the air and hitting me in the skull. And Karma said he was positive he heard that scraping sound
00:19:20
just moments before he fired the shotgun. I'm describing the sound when I say it hit.
00:19:26
What I'm picturing in my head is, I'm gonna die. To hear Marcus Karma tell it, he'd face down a threat.
00:19:33
It was kill or be killed. And that was justifiable homicide. The young soccer star who was by now in the morgue must have had a darker side that many
00:19:45
didn't see. decided to dig deeper into the lives of both Deere and De-Day and the men who shot him.
00:19:54
What they learned would only deepen this mystery. Coming up. True or false, Deere was committing a crime.
00:20:03
He was. But was Deere the only one breaking the law? Sight. Showtime. He said, Janelle makes the statement, it's showtime.
00:20:11
It's showtime. Exactly. There would be anger and astonishment on both sides. When he was killed in a neighbor's garage, exchange student Dieren Dede was just two
00:20:35
months away from returning to his family in Germany. The man who shot him said he feared for his life.
00:20:42
from Deeren's best friend Robbie. Police learned the teen did enter the garage to steal. As
00:20:49
Robbie described it, Deeren was not the first kid in Missoula to go sneaking into unlocked
00:20:54
garages. He said the kids weren't after money, credit cards, or valuables. This stunt happened
00:21:01
often enough that it had a name, garage hopping, and the target was usually beer.
00:21:08
The reason for garage hopping or garage shopping, I've heard it called both, was for kids to go in and look for alcoholic beverages that they could easily get and take.
00:21:17
Until this shooting, that sort of wasn't on anybody's radar in law enforcement. No, I had not heard garage hopping, no.
00:21:24
These three friends of Deeran say they've never gone garage hopping, but they know all about it.
00:21:30
You all know people who do it, or have done it. They understand it's illegal, but it seemed harmless.
00:21:38
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's just like, hey, dude, this is a way for you to get some extra beer, you know, when you're on a Saturday night.
00:21:46
I mean, did you think to yourself, you know, oh, my God, we didn't tell her how dangerous that could be.
00:21:52
But no one knew. No one would ever, ever be like, oh, hey, don't walk into that garage. You never know if someone's going to shoot you.
00:21:58
Robbie told police Deeran had done it before, but never taken cash or valuable property.
00:22:04
He wasn't a criminal. He was like a kid. He was a kid trying to have fun and feeding the group, doing what the other guys do, trying to be part of them.
00:22:16
Was it really that innocent? True or false, Darren was committing a crime. He was.
00:22:22
Entering somebody else's home, even their garage. That's a crime. Yes. And if Karma's life was threatened, he had the right to shoot, didn't he?
00:22:32
But as police went over Karma's story about what happened just before the confrontation,
00:22:38
something stood out. When Karma was describing how his wife first noticed, someone was approaching their garage.
00:22:46
It's like, showtime. It's like, I see something, a flashlight. He said, Janelle makes the statement, it's showtime.
00:22:53
It's showtime. Exactly. Suggesting what, that they'd been getting ready for this all night?
00:22:58
That seemed like a very interesting statement to me. at showtime. It didn't seem to fit with someone claiming to be terrified in his own home.
00:23:08
Then Karma told police he took his time going out to confront the intruder. I stood up off the couch and just kind of slowly walked over towards the front door.
00:23:19
And then she's like, hold on, hold on. All of which might make you wonder, with all that time to think, why not just stay inside, lock the doors, and call police?
00:23:31
I think the easiest thing that could have been done is once they were aware someone was outside,
00:23:37
being alerted by the tones on their phone, they call 911. And while Karma said he feared for his life, police found no weapon, no axe or tool near Duren's body.
00:23:48
The teenager was unarmed. And another red flag. Karma said he couldn't see into the garage.
00:23:56
But cops talked to the doctors who treated Duren. And they examined the shotgun pellet patterns on the garage wall.
00:24:04
He says he can't see anything, yet he's able to track a moving person in the garage,
00:24:12
and he hits them two out of four times. One, two, three, four. I didn't believe that he's just randomly shooting from right to left.
00:24:19
And so you're thinking to yourself, this does not look like a justifiable shooting.
00:24:23
No, at this point it's looking like we have a delivered homicide. The county attorney's office agreed.
00:24:30
Detective Baker delivered the news. So, we just talked to a prosecutor. She wants you to be taken into custody.
00:24:38
So that's what's going to happen. For what? For homicide. What? Seemingly stunned, Karma borrowed the detective's phone to call Janelle.
00:24:48
Babe. Hi. Being charged with murder. You're telling me? No. How was that deliberate autoside?
00:24:59
It's just the way the statute reads. He was pretty surprised. Yeah, he was surprised, and he was very emotional at that point.
00:25:07
That's the most I saw Marcus be emotional during this whole investigation. Deeren's host parents had a tangle of emotions as they processed what police said had happened.
00:25:20
Not the kid we knew. Wouldn't expect that. They were disappointed with Duren's actions, but livid with Karma's.
00:25:28
I just got more angry and more angry that that happened. And I mean, who thinks like that?
00:25:34
Just that why? It was the why at that point. You know, why would someone feel compelled to do this?
00:25:44
Marcus Karma faces a deliberate homicide charge for killing a 17-year-old German exchange student.
00:25:50
All of it was the opening gun. to a national and international debate played out in the media
00:25:57
over who was really the victim in this case. He is defending his castle. He has a right to do that.
00:26:04
Many were outraged that a homeowner could be arrested for defending his family and property.
00:26:10
Catherine Hockey is a crime reporter at the local Missoulian. I received a lot of angry phone calls from people.
00:26:16
A lot of people were afraid that this would intrude on their own rights to protect their home with a gun and their own gun rights.
00:26:26
The German press also followed the story closely. Their take echoed the thoughts of many in this country that Dieren was the victim of an American cowboy culture that glorifies gun violence.
00:26:39
And they were really incredulous that somebody could just shoot somebody for coming into their house.
00:26:44
They just didn't understand how that worked in Montana. But this is America, not Germany.
00:26:52
Aren't you allowed to protect yourself, your home, your family? Was even that on trial now?
00:26:59
Dogma and karma were about to collide. Coming up, this is your house. You defend it as you choose to defend it.
00:27:11
He knew that it was a kid coming in his garage. Battle lines are drawn and a revealing recording.
00:27:17
And then I heard the kid yelling, no, no, no, no, no, please. Did Deere and plead for his life when Dateline continues?
00:27:35
Eight months after Deere and Deyde's death, Marcus Karma went on trial for his murder.
00:27:41
Seeking justice for their son, Dieren's parents traveled from Germany to a Montana courtroom
00:27:47
where they were befriended by the same group of kids who had loved their boy. A lot of us got the chance to meet his parents when they came for it
00:27:57
and they were really, really awesome. They were a lot like Dieren. His parents watched as the man who shot their son faced the charge of deliberate homicide
00:28:05
to Karma's defense team led by attorney Paul Ryan. that was outright excessive it was a man who was fearful ryan laid out a basic narrative
00:28:16
marcus karma twice a victim of burglars reasonably thought deer and day day was another one
00:28:23
and dangerous he thought that he was dealing with drugs seeking type um individuals that were erratic and and who knows what they how they were going to respond He told the jury his client had reason to believe
00:28:38
Darren Dede was armed and ready to attack. And because he felt his life was threatened by the movement specifically of Mr. Dede,
00:28:48
and he had to take the steps, unfortunately, to take his life. The danger of a burglar is when there's a confrontation,
00:28:55
and they all want to escape and they'll do whatever they can to get away. The defense said there was no debate over one central fact.
00:29:03
Deren Dede went into that garage to steal. And on the stand, Karma's lawyer got Deren's friend Robbie to admit
00:29:11
that despite warnings, Deren didn't see much wrong with garage hopping. I think Deren never felt like it was a crime.
00:29:21
But you were warning him. You were telling him it wasn't right. It was reckless. It was dangerous.
00:29:25
Right? Yeah, yeah. Like, I understand on this way, but he maybe didn't understand.
00:29:31
In fact, the defense suggested that Deren was part of a local burglary ring that was stealing more than just beer,
00:29:39
and may have been behind the previous break-ins at the Karma house. They all knew each other.
00:29:45
They all went to Big Sky. Defense attorney Ryan argued the police never really investigated those burglaries at Karma's house,
00:29:52
and with no arrests, his client was left in a fearful, agitated state. A psychiatrist who examined karma diagnosed it as high-magnitude stress.
00:30:04
Your body changes dramatically as far as how you're reacting to things, fight or flight.
00:30:09
And while some people may have retreated or called the police or whatever, he came forward and confronted the individual.
00:30:16
Can't control it. His body went into fight mode. The defense said karma felt threatened in his home
00:30:22
and was within his legal rights to shoot under something called the Castle Doctrine.
00:30:28
The legislature has made decisions that it should be easier to protect yourself within your house.
00:30:35
You may or may not like the Castle Doctrine. I never asked you to like the law, and the judge doesn't either, but he says you have to follow the law.
00:30:43
Defense attorney Ryan insisted that Marcus Karma was guilty of nothing more than protecting his family.
00:30:49
This is your house. you defend it within your house as you choose to defend it. By the time the defense rested, those closest to Deren Dede
00:30:59
thought that Marcus Karma's lawyers had redefined what this case was about. Who Deren was kind of got lost in all this, didn't it?
00:31:07
A lot of the stuff that I heard and read made him sound like some sort of just like foreigner who came here to like stir the pot and make trouble and actually...
00:31:17
And commit crimes. Right, yeah. But to prosecutors Andrew Paul and Jennifer Clark, the real criminal in this case was Marcus Karma, who was, plain and simple, a murderer.
00:31:29
The fact is that the defendant was angry and vengeful. He knew that it was a kid coming in his garage.
00:31:37
He has his 12-gauge in his hand, and he waits. To counter the defense's suggestion that Deeren was part of some ring of thieves targeting Marcus Karma,
00:31:48
Investigators tracked down the teens who had hit Karma's garage The ones who took the cash, credit cards
00:31:56
And He had a bong and a jar of weed And some alcohol Did you know a man named Darren Deedy?
00:32:05
Not personally, no To the best of your knowledge, was he involved in a burglary ring?
00:32:10
No So, did Karma really fear for his life that night? Prosecutors said ballistics told the story.
00:32:19
The first shot to hit Deeren was to the back of his left arm, meaning he couldn't have been charging toward Marcus Karma.
00:32:27
And then he's got to do it one more time. He's got to make that final blow. And the final shot was straight to the head.
00:32:36
But prosecutors weren't done. They had what they thought was explosive evidence.
00:32:42
Just before the trial began, a recording surfaced, made the night of the shooting of a conversation an officer at the scene had
00:32:49
with Janelle. In it she reveals that just before the final shot she heard Deeren beg for his life And then I heard the kid yelling no no no no no please And then but by then there was already a shot fired And the prosecution said that after the shooting
00:33:10
Karma sounded like a man who was proud of himself. There's an article online already, and the comments are all in your favor.
00:33:18
Really? This is a jailhouse phone call between Karma and his wife, talking about the news coverage.
00:33:25
Why is he being charged? This is bulls**t. Why are you even arrested? Hey, tomorrow morning, will you buy 100 copies or something of the paper?
00:33:36
What did you say, hon? DVR, record the local news tonight on TV and keep the newspapers from tomorrow.
00:33:44
And he seemed to be very proud of that fact versus remorseful. But was this premeditated murder?
00:33:50
The only other witness to the shooting was about to tell her story. Coming up, a purse left as bait.
00:33:59
The purse was for them to take. And one more revelation. He said he'd been sitting up for three nights with a shotgun.
00:34:07
A hairstylist is about to provide the most hair-raising testimony of all. Marcus Karma was on trial for killing an unarmed teenager in his garage.
00:34:31
The prosecution was about to argue that not only was the shooting unjustified, it was planned, premeditated murder.
00:34:39
To prove it, they put the defendant's wife, Janelle Flager, on the stand, as a reluctant key witness.
00:34:46
Janelle told the jury the same thing she and the defendant had said all along. They were living in fear of intruders.
00:34:53
Literally every day. I was like a paranoid person. I just looked over my shoulder and talked in, very worried all the time.
00:35:02
So then why did they leave their garage door wide open on the day of the shooting,
00:35:08
especially after they'd warned their neighbors to keep their garages locked? Janelle said they smoked cigarettes in the garage and wanted to air it out.
00:35:17
I believe that it would be my right to have my garage door open to air out for a few minutes at a time, especially when I'm there.
00:35:27
The prosecution argued that Janelle and her husband left the garage door open on purpose because they were setting a trap.
00:35:35
Janelle denied it, but admitted she deliberately left a purse in the garage with items in it that could be traced back to her.
00:35:43
The prosecution said that was bait. We wanted to catch up. That's why you had the purse.
00:35:50
The purse was for them to take so they didn't come under the house. And so that when I call the police and I say, here is something trustable.
00:35:59
So an open door and a purse in plain sight. The prosecutor said Janelle and her husband set the stage, then waited and watched.
00:36:08
So when Deeran walked in, they weren't scared. They were excited. It's like, showtime.
00:36:15
On the stand, Janelle denied saying those words. Do you remember saying, Show calling when you saw somebody else's name?
00:36:23
No, I don't remember saying it. I usually call them for this right use. In court, Janelle also changed her story
00:36:35
about what she heard in the garage that night, now denying that Deeren had been pleading for his life.
00:36:42
Then I heard the kids yelling, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Please. My question was, you're Thessalonians here today.
00:36:51
I sort of get the feeling Janelle didn't do you a lot of favors on the witness stand.
00:36:55
No, she didn't. She, you know, denied saying something that could be played on tape.
00:37:01
Right. Yeah, Janelle talks a lot. And, you know, as a defense attorney, that often doesn't work out very well.
00:37:07
Janelle was never charged in the case. Why wasn't Janelle charged in this? In her statement to the officer, she wanted to catch the burglars.
00:37:15
She wanted to identify them. Prosecutors say they had no evidence that Janelle knew her husband was going to harm someone.
00:37:22
So what exactly was Marcus Karma thinking? Prosecutors brought in two witnesses to support the argument
00:37:29
that the shooting was nothing short of a planned execution He said he been sitting up for three nights with a shotgun waiting to kill some effing kids She works in the salon where Marcus Karma got his hair cut just days before
00:37:43
the shooting. The woman said Karma came in ranting about his recent burglaries and his chilling plan
00:37:50
to fix them. I did say to him, oh my gosh, you know, have you called the police? And he says,
00:37:56
well, the effing police will not do anything about it. And then he had mentioned that he wouldn't mind if a couple did come by
00:38:06
because he wouldn't mind shooting a couple of them also. Her co-worker told the jury she heard it too.
00:38:12
He was going to kill them. Take care of it. Did he use those words, take care of it?
00:38:17
I think it was fix it. Okay. Do you recall him saying anything else? He said, I'm not kidding.
00:38:24
You will seriously see this on the news. Okay, say that. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding.
00:38:30
You're seriously going to see this on the news. It's intent to kill. Right. He's announcing it.
00:38:37
He's lying in wait. And he's telling them, you wait and see. You're going to see this on the news.
00:38:42
That's a defense attorney's nightmare. Yeah. Is testimony that your client told somebody else, I'm going to commit this crime, and then they're later charged with that crime.
00:38:51
Correct. As the trial came to an end, Deeren's friends gathered to support his visiting parents.
00:38:57
There was a huge troop of kids who went to the closing statements, so we went to support them on those last days.
00:39:03
We filled up the seats with I don't know how many kids. A tree in front of our house became essentially the memorial for Deeren,
00:39:11
and more and more things showed up. So we felt more and more loved by Missoula than we probably ever have,
00:39:18
You know, just because they were trying to show support for us. But jurors had to consider the law and nothing else.
00:39:26
Here's how the prosecution laid it out. The issue in this case. What the defendant believed at the time he shot and killed Darren Dean.
00:39:36
Was that belief reasonable? And was the deadly force used necessary? That's your issue.
00:39:45
Jurors went to deliberate. and after eight hours over two days, they return to court.
00:39:52
We are jury all of our number. Find the defendant, Marcus Tedrick Conlock, guilty.
00:40:01
The courtroom erupted in applause and in tears and while they say the verdict was a relief,
00:40:08
Darren's host parents still feel the raw pain of his death. Nothing brings Darren back and so it's still,
00:40:14
It's just heartbreaking that someone felt compelled to do this. Would you be host to another foreign exchange student?
00:40:23
No, my heart's too broken. Couldn't do it. Two months after the verdict, Marcus Karma addressed Deer and DeDe's family at the sentencing hearing.
00:40:36
That's another van's wife, and I'm sorry I've been in VH. I did what I felt was necessary to a family and myself.
00:40:44
I hope that no one ever finds himself in the relationship that I was in prison. The judge sentenced him to 70 years in prison.
00:40:54
I almost wish he never said sorry because it was so empty and his face had just no expression.
00:41:00
It was like scary almost. Like we were all like taken aback. And I was like, take it back.
00:41:04
Like there was no meaning in that. And they say garage hopping is no longer popular.
00:41:11
Have attitudes changed about all that since then? Of course. Yeah, I haven't heard a thing about it since.
00:41:17
It's unheard of. Now it is. Yeah. Deren's friends are hoping people will forget the one deadly mistake Deren made,
00:41:26
and remember instead, the bright, charming guy they loved. You know, you're all pretty young to have to go through this.
00:41:34
Do you feel like this has changed you? Yeah. 100%, yeah. Yeah. Everything, every day you wake up, you think obviously something like that could happen
00:41:45
and you need to like do things that matter. Life seemed a little more precious now.
00:41:51
He's encouraging us to do a lot of things. I think he's still pushing us. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.