Teen Killed To Become A Satanist Sentencing Hearing Continues For Boy Charged In Murder

A Mountain Home teenager who pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of a Forest Service engineer said he needed to kill someone to become a satanist, a special prosecutor said Wednesday at his sentencing hearing.

The hearing for Eric Brown, 18, and Ronald Stiner, 17, continued on Wednesday in Weiser. They pleaded guilty to killing David Jack Wheeler of Baker City, Ore., on April 26, 1995, while he was inspecting a bridge in the Payette National Forest.

The hearing continues today with 10 witnesses expected to testify, including Brown.

Special prosecutor Marc Haws from the U.S. attorney’s office said Brown had told authorities days before the shooting that he needed to slay someone before he could become a satanist.

The two ran into Wheeler at Mann Creek, north of Weiser, one day after they escaped from a Mountain Home detention trailer.

“Eric advised me that the ultimate goal was to kill someone,” Haws said. “Eric stated he had not done that - yet.”

Boise clinical psychologist Dr. Craig Beaver testified Brown had read about satanism, but not as a single topic.

“He was reading stuff that related to black magic and satanism,” Beaver said. “From what I could tell, he was reading and trying to find things about religion as well.”

Stiner is indecisive and displays poor judgment, Beaver said.

“If someone were to say, ‘Hey, let’s do this, let’s do that,’ I would say Ron is more likely than others to go along with it, and not stop and think about what the consequences would be,” he said.

He testified that Brown showed evidence of a personality disorder, but added he could not pin that down as the reason for the shooting.

Brown will be sentenced for first-degree murder and Stiner for second-degree murder.

Under a plea bargain negotiated in March, prosecutors want Brown imprisoned for life with no possibility of parole and Stiner for life with no parole during his first 15 years behind bars.

Brown told police he shot Wheeler in the back of the head as Wheeler turned to get them a drink of water.

“Voices told me to shoot him with that gun,” Brown told Weiser police officer Carl Smith. “He’s got a lot of money, got credit cards.”