Michael Richard Swanson was always a strange child. As he grew into adolescence his behavior became even stranger. Yet, despite his behavior, he never had had problems with the law.

All that changed when he shoplifted some ramen noodles from a local grocery store. The 18-year-old Swanson, charged in Carroll, Iowa, probably felt a charge of excitement when he stole. Swanson was not a good thief – he got caught stealing the $0.17 item.

Is He Insane?

His defense attorney is trying to persuade a jury that his client is not guilty by reason of insanity. Of course he is not on trial for stealing $0.17 ramen noodles. He is on trial for murder.

The Minnesota teenager pointed a 40-caliber Beretta handgun about two feet from the face of a convenience store clerk and pulled the trigger.

A defense attorney argued during opening statements Monday that Swanson has never known right from wrong and was legally insane when Sheila Myers, 61, was killed.

A police officer testified that Swanson's father, an avid hunter sitting in the front row of the courtroom, told him that the family locked up guns in their home because they feared their own son.

After the shooting, Swanson told a friend that he planned to flee to Mexico or by freighter to Amsterdam, because he had violated his probation when he stole ramen noodles from a grocery store.

Life in Prison

Swanson faces life in prison without parole if convicted. He is also accused of killing another convenience store clerk - Vicky Bowman-Hall, 47 - and will stand trial in that case in July.

Authorities say Swanson killed Bowman-Hall in Algona about an hour before he killed Myers in Humboldt. Both clerks were shot at point-blank range after complying with demands for cash and cigarettes.

And it all started with theft of ramen noodles. And it's too late now for an online shoplifting class.