Hearing held for boy accused of double murder in CdA

Eldon Samuel III, the Coeur d’Alene teenager accused of killing his father and brother last year, has been writing in code while at the Kootenai County Juvenile Justice Center and said he’s interested in writing a book, according to court testimony this morning. “We stumbled upon a few pieces of paper in his folder,” said Edward Fidler III, a Coeur d’Alene School District teacher who works with juvenile offenders, in a hearing before 1st District Judge Benjamin Simpson. “It was later discovered that he was actually writing in code.” Samuel, 15, was reprimanded for the writings, which were turned over to the juvenile jail staff. Using a simple cipher, detention specialists were able to decrypt the writings. The content was not revealed in the hearing, which pertains to Samuel’s motion to suppress his interview with police following his arrest last March. Detention officials also testified they have seen Samuel with books from the juvenile center library. The subject matter of some of the books involves zombies, snakes, war and the military. Two of Samuel’s former teachers from Lakes Magnet Middle School testified this morning that Samuel performed fairly well in their classes despite frequent absences. “Oh man, he did tremendously well,” retired teacher Ronald Harrelson said, recalling Samuel in his design tech class last spring. Samuel was present for only six of 23 days of class but was able to catch up with other students when he did attend, Harrelson said. The eighth grader earned a C, which “is pretty darn amazing to me,” he said. Lakes wood shop teacher Michael Daly said Samuel passed three required safety tests for operating power tools and completed two projects in his class last spring. Victoria Juhlin taught Samuel in a sign language class at Lakes last winter. Despite missing 25 of 41 classes, “he actually did pretty well,” Juhlin said. “It was amazing that he did as well as he did,” she said. The prosecuting attorney is expected to refer to this testimony in arguing that Samuel was capable of waiving his right to remain silent and agreeing to speak with detectives in the hours after his arrest. 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. Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams is asking Simpson 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.”