Hearings set in CdA boy’s murder trial

As a 15-year-old boy in Coeur d’Alene prepares to stand trial for murder in the deaths of his father and brother last March, a judge will decide whether a jury will hear evidence of a hostile relationship between the brothers, and if the boy’s alleged confession to police should be tossed out.

Idaho 1st District Judge Benjamin Simpson also will rule on a motion challenging the state’s automatic transfer of the case to adult court, and another seeking a change of venue because news coverage might prejudice Kootenai County jurors.

Simpson is scheduled to take up those motions from attorneys Tuesday and Wednesday, ahead of the March 2 trial for Eldon Samuel III. He is charged with second-degree murder of his father, Eldon Samuel Jr., and first-degree murder of his autistic brother, Jonathan, 13.

Samuel was 14 when he allegedly killed them on the evening of 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.

A fuller account of the case recently was made public after a Kootenai County magistrate judge was ordered to unseal the transcript of Samuel’s preliminary hearing, held over two days last June. The transcript makes reference to statements Samuel made to police following his arrest, including that he had anticipated killing his father and brother and that he resented his brother and blamed him for the family’s problems.

Also, in recent court filings the Kootenai County prosecutor’s office said it intends to introduce evidence of Samuel’s previous abuse of his brother to establish a strong motive for murder. That includes testimony from their grandfather that he saw the defendant hit Jonathan in the head and stomach multiple times and throw him down in anger in the summer of 2013, right after the boys and their father moved to Coeur d’Alene from California.

The evidence also would include an account of Eldon stabbing his brother in the back with a knife in 2004 in Modesto, California, the prosecutor’s office said.

Evidence of prior assaults “tends to establish malice, intent, premeditation, and willfulness, all elements of first-degree murder,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Art Verharen argues in his motion to introduce the evidence. It also “rebuts the likely contention that Mr. Samuel acted unexpectedly or because he watched too many violent video games,” Verharen wrote.

The “sibling conflict” the previous summer is not relevant, according to Samuel’s attorney, Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams.

“Whether Eldon grabbed his brother’s arm and threw him to the ground or whether he on occasion hit his brother has no material connection to the charge at hand,” Adams wrote in asking Simpson to exclude such evidence.

Adams also is asking the judge to suppress all statements Samuel made to police as well as all evidence gathered against him after his arrest, including the boy’s clothes. The clothing had what appeared to be blood and pieces of flesh on it, according to police accounts of the crime scene.

Samuel waived his Miranda rights, both verbally and in writing, and agreed to speak with investigators, police said. But Adams argues that Samuel’s waiver of his right to remain silent “was not knowing, voluntary and intelligent.” To support that, the public defender sought to use expert testimony by Craig Beaver, the forensic and neuropsychology supervisor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington Medical Center in Boise.

Verharen argues that Samuel, who was in eighth grade at Lakes Middle School, is at least of average intelligence and sophisticated enough to provide care for his disabled younger brother. Samuel has “ample cognitive abilities to understand that he did not have to talk to officers if he did not want to,” he wrote in a court brief.

Verharen also points out that even before Samuel admitted to the killings in the interview at the police station, the teenager called 911 that night and told the operator he had shot his father and brother.

In other motions before Simpson, Samuel’s lawyer asks that:

• Idaho’s process of automatically sending juveniles into adult court if they are at least 14 and charged with certain crimes be declared unconstitutional, and that Samuel’s case be sent back to juvenile court.

• Samuel be given a jury pool from outside the county due to “massive pre-trial publicity and demonstrated hostility” toward him.

• The prosecution be prevented from seeking an increase in the maximum penalty on the basis that Samuel used a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.

Verharen has filed motions opposing all three.