Delay sought in Coeur d’Alene juvenile’s murder trial

The lawyer for a Coeur d’Alene juvenile accused of murdering two family members asked a judge Wednesday for a delay in the trial, which is scheduled to start March 2.

Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams told 1st District Judge Benjamin Simpson that his team still is trying to obtain copies of records from California, where Eldon Samuel III lived before moving with his father and brother to North Idaho in 2013.

Samuel, 15, is charged with two counts of murder in the March 2014 deaths of his father, Eldon Samuel Jr., and his brother, Jonathon Samuel, 13. Both were shot repeatedly inside an emergency housing unit where they were living. Jonathon also was stabbed.

Adams said he is trying to gather “thousands of pieces of paper” including school, health and child protective service records related to the family. He said he has experts waiting to review and weigh in on these records. Without more time, Adams said he could not effectively assist Samuel at trial. He asked Simpson to reschedule the trial for next fall.

Kootenai County Deputy District Attorney Art Verharen questioned the relevancy of the missing records and said he prefers to stick with the March trial date.

Simpson said he’d set a time soon to hear the motion and learn more about the information Adams is waiting on. The judge also noted he will retire April 30 but plans to return to the bench in June as a senior judge, filling in as needed. Simpson said he intends to stay on as the judge in the Samuel case.

Simpson also heard two days of arguments on six other motions in the case and indicated he’ll issue his decisions as soon as possible.

Most of the time was spent on a defense motion to toss out all statements Samuel made to police after he was arrested, including his alleged confession, as well as all evidence gathered against him after his arrest, including the boy’s clothes. Adams argued that police coerced Samuel into waiving his Miranda rights that night, using psychological and physical intimidation. The public defender cited dozens of instances from Samuel’s police interview that he claims diminished the importance of Samuel’s rights.

“They lied to him and misled him over and over again,” he told Simpson on Wednesday.

Adams also argued that Samuel lacked the intelligence and sophistication to fully understand the Miranda waiver or the consequences of signing the waiver and agreeing to talk with investigators. Samuel was failing most of his classes, had been placed in remedial courses, had missed almost half of his school days at Lakes Magnet Middle School, and was sleep-deprived and on prescription medication when police interrogated him, Adams said.

Verharen countered that testimony and evidence from school district and juvenile justice employees shows Samuel did have the ability to understand his rights.

“He’s not below average,” he said. “He doesn’t have any cognitive disabilities in the record at all.”

Samuel reads novels, indicates a desire to write and even writes in code, Verharen told the judge. On Tuesday, witnesses from the Kootenai County Juvenile Justice Center said they discovered Samuel had been writing in a simple code and expressed interest in writing a book. Detention specialists were able to decrypt the writings, but the content was not revealed in the hearing.

They also testified that Samuel read books from the juvenile center library that involve zombies, snakes, war and the military.

Two of Samuel’s former teachers from Lakes testified that Samuel performed fairly well in their classes – design tech and sign language – despite frequent absences. Another teacher said he spent some extra time with Samuel before the boy was able to pass required safety tests for operating power tools in wood shop.

Simpson has yet to rule on motions by Adams challenging the constitutionality of Idaho’s law forbidding an insanity defense; challenging the state’s process of automatically sending juveniles into adult court if they are at least 14 and charged with certain crimes; seeking a jury pool from outside the county due to pre-trial publicity; and challenging the prosecutor’s penalty enhancement due to use of a deadly weapon in a felony.

The judge also is considering a motion by Verharen to introduce evidence of Samuel’s previous abuse of his brother, who had autism, to establish a strong motive for murder.

Samuel blamed his family’s troubles on Jonathon’s disability, saying the stress of having a disabled child was responsible for his dad’s addiction to painkillers and his mother’s decision to leave the family, according to previous court testimony.