Prosecutors are asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to add the cost of grave markers to the restitution convicted murderer Byron Smith is ordered to pay.
Smith was sentenced to life in prison for killing two teenagers at his home in Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day in 2012.
"The families of 18-year-old Haile Kifer and 17-year-old Nick Brady want to add the cost of headstones to the more than $21,000 Smith was ordered in November to pay them," The Star Tribune reported. "The families want about $10,000 for Kiefer's headstone and about $9,400 for Brady's, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
"... A judge originally excluded the headstones from Smith's restitution because the families hadn't bought them yet, according to court documents."
Smith is appealing the restitution. Thursday the Minnesota Supreme Court reported Smith's appeal was stayed in June and the case was remanded to Morrison County District Court for further proceedings regarding restitution. A briefing on the appeal is proceeding. The Minnesota Supreme Court reported Smith's brief shall be served and filed within 60 days.
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Following a jury trial, the families had submitted restitution requests totalling more than $42,000 for out-of-pocket expenses, such as funeral costs, mileage to and from court hearings and loss of wages for the parents.
In 2012, Smith shot and killed the two teenage cousins after they broke into his home and left them in his basement overnight. The prosecution said Smith planned the shootings by moving his vehicle so intruders would think he wasn't home, activating an audio recorder and loading his weapons, making him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. The victims were each shot multiple times.
