Joseph Duncan

Federal prosecutors have identified the first expert witnesses expected to testify in the case against convicted killer Joseph Duncan. A forensic anthropologist and forensic odontologist from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology examined the remains of 9-year-old victim Dylan Groene, according to court documents. Both are expected to testify at Duncan's January trial in federal court in Boise.

BOISE – Lawyers are busy filing motions and compiling evidence. Court clerks are updating the docket and scheduling hearings. The federal case against Joseph Duncan is moving slowly toward trial. But in the midst of all the paperwork falls an important date: Today is the second anniversary of the slayings of Brenda Matthews Groene; her fiance, Mark McKenzie; and 13-year-old Slade Groene. The three were bludgeoned to death with a hammer at their Coeur d'Alene-area home on May 16, 2005. Young Shasta Groene and her brother, Dylan, were abducted the same day.

Joseph Duncan will stand trial in January 2008, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge said in an order issued Thursday. The Jan. 22, 2008, trial date is somewhat of a compromise between the requests by attorneys on both sides of the federal death penalty case.

A man who's in prison for killing three people in a traffic collision was sentenced Thursday in another case in which he killed a man while fiddling with a loaded gun. Kevin T. Culp was sentenced to three years Thursday by Judge Maryann Moreno after he pleaded guilty to shooting 19-year-old Cedric Sykes in the neck in April 2004.

The Kootenai County commission wants to have another public hearing before deciding whether to allow a shooting range in a gravel pit east of state Highway 41. The April 26 hearing is on the Kootenai County sheriff's request for a conditional-use permit to operate the firearms training range in the pit owned by the Post Falls Highway District. The pit is just north of Hayden Avenue.

Attorneys for convicted killer Joseph Duncan want to postpone his federal trial by a year and a half. Thursday's request by Duncan's attorneys comes a day after a request by federal prosecutors to delay the trial, set to start March 20, until July 9. But Duncan's attorneys are asking the trial be set for Aug. 18, 2008, so they have more time to investigate and review evidence.

BOISE – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday demanded that convicted killer Joseph Duncan be shipped to his state to be tried for the 1997 slaying of a 10-year-old boy, but federal prosecutors here said they expect to complete their prosecution of Duncan first. U.S. Attorney Tom Moss in Boise charged Duncan last month with 10 felony counts, including kidnapping resulting in the torture and sex slaying of Dylan Groene. Duncan is also charged with kidnapping Shasta Groene. She was the lone survivor of a 2005 attack on her Wolf Lodge home. The girl was rescued July 2, 2005, at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant where Duncan was arrested.

A decade before Joseph Duncan allegedly abducted and killed Dylan Groene, he killed two girls in Western Washington and a boy in Southern California – crimes to which he has confessed, federal prosecutors said. Duncan, 43, has admitted to the 1997 slaying of Anthony Martinez in Riverside County, Calif., and the 1996 slayings of 9-year-old Carmen Cubias and 11-year-old Sammiejo White in the Seattle area, according to federal court documents filed Tuesday and reported first at spokesmanreview.com.

BOISE – Federal prosecutors have filed their first charge against convicted murderer Joseph Duncan, but it's not for abducting two North Idaho children and killing one of them. Duncan has been charged with illegally driving a stolen Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo across state lines. Federal investigators say he rented the car from a rental car agency in Minnesota and never returned it.

A decision hasn't been made on where Joseph Duncan might be tried for alleged crimes against the youngest Groene children, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Haws said Tuesday. Haws said he's not sure about the origin of media reports that Duncan would be tried in Boise.