Update: Jurors see grisly crime scene

The parents of Eldon Gale Samuel III were abusive drug addicts constantly on the move in California, leaving their son to care for his autistic brother 11 months his junior. The father, Eldon Samuel Jr., believed zombies were real and one day would come after them, and he instilled that paranoid fantasy in his boys. He also beat and threatened to kill his older son, who frequently missed school and suffered from poor dental care. This dysfunctional family portrait painted by Samuel’s defense attorney speaks to the Coeur d’Alene teenager’s state of mind when he killed his father and brother two years ago in a dingy house at 1311 N. First St., Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams said Wednesday in his opening statement in Samuel’s murder trial. “Keep an open mind” about why Samuel, now 16, did what he did the night of March 24, 2014, Adams told jurors inside the former federal courthouse in downtown Coeur d’Alene/ Scott Maben , SR. More here.