Shasta can’t face away, lawyer says

Because Joseph Duncan isn’t charged with crimes against Shasta Groene in Kootenai County, his attorney says the 9-year-old must face Duncan in court when she testifies against him later this fall.

Public Defender John Adams filed a formal motion Wednesday afternoon opposing a request by prosecutors that Shasta be allowed to testify with her back turned.

Duncan is set to be tried on charges of murdering Shasta’s mother, her 13-year-old brother, Slade, and her mother’s fiancé in May 2005. Duncan allegedly abducted Shasta and her brother, Dylan, from the crime scene.

In his motion, Adams said the prosecution only cites Idaho law allowing child victims to testify with special accommodations and ignores case law from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Adams said federal case law defines strict parameters limiting child testimony by an alternative means.

“A defendant cannot be deprived of face-to-face confrontation with a child witness,” unless the defendant has been charged with sexual abuse of that child, Adams said in the court filing.

Though Duncan allegedly molested Shasta and Dylan after he kidnapped them and while he held them captive in Montana for weeks, federal prosecutors have yet to charge him with those crimes.

As for the Kootenai County case, Adams said “not one charge is even related to an act upon or involving Shasta Groene or any sexual abuse.”

Prosecutor Bill Douglas told 1st District Judge Fred Gibler on Wednesday that prosecutors wanted Shasta to be able to testify without having to look at Duncan. Douglas said the state may also ask that Shasta be able to testify with a friend by her side.

The girl’s father said Wednesday that he had hoped for a plea agreement in all cases that would take the death penalty off the table and keep Shasta from having to testify.

Steve Groene said protecting Shasta was the only reason he favored a plea deal. He said he believed Duncan deserved death.

Groene said federal authorities informed him that they also plan to seek the death penalty for Duncan for the killing of 9-year-old Dylan and crimes against both children.

He said he supports the decision of federal prosecutors. If Duncan is sentenced to death at the federal level, Groene said, other jurisdictions waiting to charge Duncan may no longer seek death.

Groene said he hopes that would prevent Shasta, who is entering the fourth grade this fall, from having to testify in other states. Duncan has been named the prime suspect in a 1997 murder in California and in the deaths of two Seattle-area girls.

Federal prosecutors did not return calls seeking comment on Thursday.