Duncan pleads guilty to murder, kidnap
Pool Photo Joseph E. Duncan III, left, listens in Kootenai County Sherriff's Department Justice building in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, as he pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping stemming from a brutal triple-murder in May 2005. Public Defender investigator Mark Durant, center, and Kootenai Country Sheriff's Detective Brad Maskell are shown in reflections in a glass panel. Duncan, 43, was charged with bludgeoning two adults and a teenager to death at their home near Coeur d'Alene so he could kidnap the family's two …
COEUR d'ALENE - Just like that, it was over - at least for now.
On Monday, the day scheduled for jury selection in his kidnap and murder trial, Joseph Edward Duncan III pleaded guilty to killing a Wolf Lodge family last year.
The last-minute plea deal will, at the very least, keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
The deal also means 9-year-old Shasta Groene, the lone survivor of the killings, won't have to testify.
"Guilty," the 43-year-old level III registered sex offender said six times as 1st District Judge Fred Gibler asked for his plea to three counts each of first-degree murder and first degree kidnap Brenda Kay Matthews Groene, 40; her son, Slade Vincent Groene, 13; and her boyfriend, Mark Edward McKenzie, 37, at their Wolf Lodge Bay area home in the early the morning hours of May 16, 2005.
Authorities said the motive was to kidnap Brenda Groene's two youngest children - Dylan, 9, and Shasta, 8 - for sexual purposes.
Tuesday, a federal grand jury is expected to hear evidence charging Duncan with crimes stemming from kidnapping the children, including the murder of Dylan. Already, federal prosecutors have received permission from the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty in their case.
"I've thought a lot about what I wanted to say," Duncan told Gibler before the judge passed sentence on the kidnapping charge. "I have nothing to say."
Gibler agreed to bind himself to the deal, which allows the state to hold a death sentence trial over Duncan's head in the event he is not convicted or sentenced to death in federal court. Shasta would not have to testify in that hearing.
Further, Duncan must cooperate with Kootenai County authorities investigating the murder-kidnap cases and turn over the password and or keys to encrypted computer files on his laptop to his federal public defender. Law officers speculate those files might hold information to more child sex crimes.
On Monday, Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said he and Duncan's lawyer, Public Defender John Adams, met Friday to hammer out the final arrangements. Duncan agreed on Saturday, after Gibler agreed to go along with the deal. He said the surviving family members were also in agreement.
"This is the best thing for every one around," said McKenzie's mother, Lee Wood. "Especially for Shasta."
Douglas said two parts of the agreement were deal-breakers.
"The death penalty was never negotiable in this case," Douglas said. Also, he demanded that Shasta must not have to testify.
"We did not want to have Shasta take the stand," said Darlene Torres, the girl's maternal grandmother and mother of Brenda Groene.
"It's been a long, difficult road," Adams said. "I think for Kootenai County the case is over."