Teen accused of killing father, brother will face trial in Kootenai County

A Coeur d’Alene teenager accused of killing his father and brother last year will face trial in Kootenai County, a judge ruled this week. Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams, who is representing Eldon Gale Samuel III, 15, had asked the judge to move Samuel’s trial outside the county, arguing that media coverage of his case makes it unlikely that his client could receive a fair trial locally. But 1st District Judge Benjamin R. Simpson ruled this week that the case should move ahead in Kootenai County. “The court does not find that the media reports have created an atmosphere utterly corrupt by press coverage,” Simpson’s ruling said. “When the trial matter begins, approximately 15 months will have elapsed between the majority of the news coverage and the July 13, 2015 trial.” Samuel was 14 when he allegedly killed his father Eldon Samuel Jr. and his 13-year-old brother Jonathan Samuel on March 24, 2014, inside the St. Vincent de Paul emergency housing unit where the three had been living. His father was shot in the stomach and head and his brother had between 40 and 50 gunshot, knife and machete wounds, according to court records. Court transcripts of a hearing from last summer indicated that Samuel blamed his brother for the family’s problems. Witnesses who testified at a hearing in the case last year described a reclusive, dysfunctional family with a father who was inebriated and the two boys left on their own.