German exchange student Diren Dede in his soccer uniform
In 2014, Markus Kaarma and his wife set a trap in their garage to
lure thieves:
Court records said Kaarma and his common-law wife, Janelle Pflager, had set up sensors outside the garage, a video monitoring system in the garage and left the garage door open. Pflager said she put personal items that she had cataloged in a purse in the garage "so that they would take it."
Early Sunday, the sensors went off, and Kaarma and Pflager looked at the video feed and saw that someone was in the garage.
Kaarma went outside with his shotgun. He told investigators he heard a noise that sounded like metal on metal, and he was afraid the intruder would come out and hurt him. He said he did not see anyone in the darkened garage and did not communicate with anyone before sweeping the garage with four shotgun blasts.
Diren Dede, a German exchange student attending
Big Sky High School had been shot and killed. His best friend said they were "garage hopping",
looking for alcohol:
“I thought it wasn’t good and I didn’t like it, but we didn’t know that if you went into a garage someone could shoot you,” Pazmino said.
Pazmino said he heard a voice say: “I see you,” and then heard the first of four gunshots. He said he took off running to Dede’s host parents’ house, thinking his friend was close behind. He didn’t learn Dede had been shot until returning to the scene with Dede’s host parents.
Although they claimed to have been robbed before this incident, others in the community
had more to say:
In addition, a hair stylist told police that during an appointment a few days earlier, Kaarma talked about staying up nights trying to catch a would-be burglar.
“I’m just waiting to shoot some (expletive) kid,” Kaarma allegedly told stylists at the Missoula salon.
Today he was sentenced to 70 years in prison:
He will not be eligible for parole for 20 years, Missoula District Judge Ed McLean said.
"You pose too great a risk to society to be anywhere else but the Montana State Prison. Good luck to you, son," the judge said.