Tuesday, May 16, 2006

ONGOING COVERAGE: GROENE INVESTIGATION

What's next

May 13, 2006

• Joseph Duncan, sitting in a Kootenai County jail cell since his arrest last summer, will face the death penalty if he is convicted for the May 2005 murders of Brenda Groene, Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie. The trial, twice postponed, is set for Oct. 16.

• A hearing for pretrial motions is set for August. Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams wants a jury from outside the county to hear the case. The public defender also is asking the court to declare the state's 1982 repeal of the insanity defense unconstitutional.

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• Steve Groene, father of the Groene children, asked Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas and prosecutors in other pending cases to consider a plea agreement in the case to keep daughter Shasta off the stand. Other family members say they still want Duncan to face the death penalty.

• If Duncan is convicted in the triple killing, it will be the first time a Kootenai County jury, rather than a judge, will be asked to determine whether a defendant deserves death. Under a law passed in 2004, juries decide the fate of a defendant convicted in a death penalty case. Only three death penalty cases in Idaho have been tried under the new law. Juries dealt death as punishment in two of those cases, Douglas said.

• The last Idaho death row inmates from Kootenai County were Donald Paradis and Thomas Gibson, who were convicted and sentenced in 1981 for the death of 19-year-old Kimberly Palmer, whose body was found in a creek in Post Falls. She had been strangled. Both men were released when their convictions were overturned by an appeals court.

• Duncan is expected to be charged by federal prosecutors for the kidnapping of Shasta Groene, kidnapping and murder of Dylan Groene and other crimes, including production of child pornography. The federal case won't be filed until after the state's case against Duncan concludes.

• The sex offender also may be charged in the murders of two Seattle-area girls and a 10-year-old California boy. Kristin Richardson, senior deputy prosecutor for the King County Prosecutor's Office, said she couldn't comment on what charges Duncan may face there. A Justice Department source told The Spokesman-Review in August that Duncan implicated himself in the 1996 deaths of 11-year-old Sammiejo White and her 9-year-old sister, Carmen Cubias.

• Authorities in Riverside, Calif., said a fingerprint tied Duncan to the 1997 abduction and murder of Anthony Martinez. The Riverside County District Attorney's Office said it has not decided whether to seek the death penalty. The case remains under review. "This case is just in a holding pattern until we get jurisdiction of the case," said Public Information Officer Ingrid Wyatt.

• Duncan has previously been charged with molestation in Becker County, Minn. He skipped out on bail and came to North Idaho, where he allegedly carried out the crimes against the Groene-McKenzie family.