As of now I’m still on the fence about premeditation. For this to be premeditated one has to believe BM forgot to plan the aftermath properly, because the alibi was organized last minute in a very strange way. Sending texts to someone to assemble a crew for the Broomfield job around 4 am Mother’s Day seems unusual at the least.
Also because MG said originally this job would be done by the two of them. AFAIR I never clearly heard MG saying if the job really would have began Monday morning and only the number of people doing the job has suddenly changed or the starting date of the job was a surprise too. But I could be wrong on this. The interview with MG was much longer than LS could fit in her segment, so I always had this question somewhere in the back of my head.
There is of course the possibility BM planned this to some extent (like at least toyed with this idea some time in his mind without making a clear plan) and sized an opportunity which somehow suddenly presented itself and had to think on his feet from there. Like he suddenly found himself in an ideal place and time to make it happen. That could explain the need of the hasty alibi building and bad staging. This event could also have taken place at some other place than their home.
I must admit there is also an option this was planned all along, but the execution of the rest went wrong because of panic or guilt or fear of consequences or because of sheer stupidity. Or just plain old overconfidence in oneself and/or in the storyline he will present and/or in someone’s own credibility around town. This could have happened at home or somewhere else too.
Somehow I still hope something unusual happened, something went tragically wrong -but inexplainable without the danger of going to jail- and SM never saw this coming. This too could explain the bad alibi and staging. This I could imagine happening at home.
If I look at everything then to me the likelihood of something have happened at home is still greater because of those search warrants of the home, definitely because there was a second warrant which is much harder to get.
But you are right, if this happened outside the house then the vehicle used would be the key. Even if it happened at home.
Wow, sorry for the sheer length of this post.
I think you're misunderstanding what pre-meditation is.
As posted not too far above, a strangulation is pre-meditated (even if the person never thought about it before) because it takes 3-4 minutes to accomplish the murder, and the murderer had time to think it over.
Getting in one's car, starting it and then driving it toward another person is premeditation (even if the murderer didn't think about it even once before letting their foot off the brake and putting it into drive - even if they only meant to scare the other person). That can be just a few seconds.
Beating someone to death is usually charged as first degree for the same reasons as strangulation is.
Going to get a gun, taking it off safety and aiming it at another person, even if the gun user never thought one time of killing that other person, and even if the murderer claims "my finger slipped," is still premeditated murder in most US jurisdictions (and indeed, around the world).
Attempts to cover up one's actions after the fact lead fairly often to first degree convictions.
It doesn't take much. Being a bungling bumbling foolio and messing with a crime scene or trying to hide evidence (but doing it poorly) doesn't remove the premeditation part from the above examples. Most murderers mess up in the aftermath, and if there's any staging or clean-up at all, it is going to be hard for them to say it wasn't premeditated.
Because, you know, if you accidentally strangle your wife or accidentally shoot your gun in the house and it strikes your wife (or whatever), the first thing you do when you realize your "accident" is to call 911. Hiding the body shows a guilty mind and a guilty mind can also be evidence of premeditation. "Gee, I wish she were dead and look, my hands are around her neck!" is the essence of premeditation for most DV cases.