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Duncan questions medical expert

Dr. Sharon Cooper, a renowned medical and child abuse expert and one of only 500 forensic pediatricians in the country, testified this morning that Dylan�s abdominal wound likely wasn�t immediately fatal. �No, not at all,� she said, calling such a wound, �a very potentially salvageable injury � we see this in soldiers on the battlefield rather often. They can live for several hours like that,� she said, and careful surgery can repair the damage. She described a range of possible injuries to a child from a gunshot to the abdomen, and said based on Shasta�s description, Dylan likely suffered an evisceration wound, the second-least damaging of five possible types of injuries she described. In that type of injury, internal organs protrude through the wound, but they can be put back in and the damage repaired, she said. ( Full post )

Gun couldn't fire accidentally

An FBI firearms expert who extensively tested the murder weapon testified this morning that Joseph Duncan�s Browning 12-gauge shotgun could not fire accidentally, such as from being dropped, and that multiple tests showed that 5 pounds of pressure was required on the trigger to get the gun to fire. That suggests that Duncan�s first shot, which hit 9-year-old Dylan Groene in the stomach, was no accident, though that was what he led the boy�s sister to believe. ( Full post )

'Sometimes really, really mean'

Here�s a link to my full story in today�s Spokesman-Review on Tuesday�s revelations in court, and here�s a link to our slide show of items of evidence submitted in the case, including the murder weapon. Yesterday, it seemed like the biggest revelation was how cruel Joseph Duncan was to the two children he held captive; he also was alternately kind, but the level of cruelty was stunning. As little Shasta put it in her videotaped interview with police the night of her rescue, �Jet was sometimes nice to us, and sometimes really, really mean.� She described beatings, molestation and harrowing threats, along with apologies and Duncan�s ravings about God and forgiveness. Another revelation was how helpful the child�s information was to police, who located the campsite where the children were held within a day, and found key evidence. ( Full post )

'Dylan was a very brave boy'

As a child�s voice told of horrors suffered by herself and her 9-year-old brother, jurors listened intently, some clasping their hands over their mouths, other leaning forward or occasionally jotting a note on a clipboard. The victims� father, Steve Groene, sat in the audience, where he clutched a tissue and left at the end of the day with reddened eyes. Duncan himself sat looking down, sometimes writing a note on a legal pad, but often closing his eyes. ( Full post )

Duncan threatened repeatedly to kill Shasta

Joseph Duncan threatened to kill Shasta numerous times, she told investigators in audio tapes played for jurors this afternoon. �Jet was sometimes nice to us, and sometimes really mean,� the little girl told authorities in one of four taped interviews. She described one time when Duncan tied her 9-year-old brother Dylan to a log and beat him with a stick until the stick broke. �I saw that happen, I was tied up to a tree,� the little girl said. �Dylan was tied up to this big log. � Jet � whacked him � It was really horrible.� Another time, he put a rope around her neck while she lay on the ground, while filming his actions with a video camera on a small tripod. She said Duncan told her that before he came to her home, �He said that he was out looking for children to kidnap.� ( Full post )

'You guys would probably be crying really hard'

The sleepy child, speaking with difficulty, told Capt. Dan Mattos about Duncan�s molesting of her and her brother, and said he also forced them to do things he videotaped. She said she saw the movie of Duncan torturing Dylan at an old cabin near their remote campsite. �If you guys probably got hold of it, you guys would probably be crying really hard � it was just a terrible movie,� the youngster told the police officer. ( Full post )

Shasta�s full interview at KMC played for jurors

A hushed courtroom just heard the entire interview little Shasta gave at Kootenai Medical Center, after being rescued from Joseph Duncan. Among the new details revealed: At some point while Duncan was holding Shasta, then 8, and her 9-year-old brother Dylan captive at a remote campsite in the Lolo National Forest, Duncan shoed the two children the hammer that he used to kill their mother, older brother and mother�s fianc�. �He told me and Dylan to get in the car � he held it up and said, �This is what I killed your parents with,� and I think he said, �I�m gonna kill you with it too,�� the child told Kootenai County Sheriff�s Capt. Dan Mattos, who was interviewing her. �Me and Dylan were crying.� ( Full post )

What else might he have been up to?

It seems like Joseph Duncan is trying to suggest that there�s an alternative explanation for the 36 �way points� he marked on his GPS as he traveled around on a multistate trip, during which he purchased items, considered victims, and then committed his crimes. Prosecutors say many of the points are homes that show obvious signs that children live there, and some are day care centers, school bus stops, etc. Yesterday, Duncan asked how far a home with a swingset and play equipment was from the waypoint he marked on the nearby highway; it was a quarter-mile away. Today, he questioned FBI Special Agent Mike Gneckow about why Gneckow didn�t ask Duncan what the way points were all about. �During your investigation of those way points, did you ever make any effort to contact the defendant, myself, to find out what they were about?� Duncan demanded of Gneckow. (Gneckow explained he couldn�t do that.) ( Full post )

Duncan�s path traced across states

An FBI financial analyst just finished tracing Joseph Duncan�s purchases in April of 2005, when he traveled around from state to state, buying various items that he then used in his crimes the next month. The purchases, shown on a map of the United States, traced a jagged line southward, occasionally veering east or west, with the easternmost point a trip to an adult store in Montrose, Ill., where he bought a DVD. He then veered back to Clinton, Okla., back up north to Commerce City, Colo., and then up to the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area in Wyoming, where the receipts for six of those purchases he made on the meandering trip were recovered from trash scattered from a campground garbage can by a bear. ( Full post )

Why Duncan abandoned Stryker camp

Bryan Olson, a forest service worker from South Dakota, testified this morning that he encountered Duncan near the campsite the admitted murderer had set up near Stryker, Mont. in May of 2005, while Olson was spraying for weeds at a nearby gravel pit. �He was walking across the gravel pit from the west side with an armload of bamboo poles under his arm,� Olson told the court; the poles were used at a nearby Forest Service tree nursery. Duncan approached Olson. �We had backpack spray units ... (and) a spray truck,� Olson said. �He approached us probably two or three feet away. � He looked a little bit scruffy, like he�d been out camping for quite a bit of time. I woulda guessed he was in his 40s. � He asked us what we were doing in the area, and why we were working on a Saturday.� Olson said, �It was actually Monday, and we were treating noxious weeds in the area.� Duncan accepted the answer and left. ( Full post )

Duncan grills FBI agent

Joseph Duncan just got into a back-and-forth on cross examination of FBI Special Agent Mike Gneckow, asking Gneckow why he never contacted Duncan himself to ask about the meaning of the various �way points� that Duncan marked on his GPS. Gneckow said he was prohibited from contacting the defendant, who at the time was represented by attorneys and had exercised his 5th Amendment right to silence. The exchange came after five other witnesses testified this morning, most of them focusing on the camp Duncan set up near Stryker, Mont. and his casing of homes with children about 100 miles to the south. Numerous items were recovered from Duncan�s abandoned campsite and entered into evidence today, including a pink children�s bicycle with training wheels, an unused blue hand shovel, a rolling backback with the purchase receipt still inside, several newspapers, a container of �strawberry motion lotion� personal lubricant, a camera tripod and more. ( Full post )

When Duncan prowled region for victims

Joseph Duncan was all set to commit his crimes in northwestern Montana, with different children as his victims, before he changed his mind, drove to Idaho and targeted the Groene family. The convicted child-rapist went so far as to set up a remote campsite in Flathead National Forest near Stryker, Mont., with children's toys and a tall tripod for a video camera, according to evidence presented in court Monday in Duncan's death penalty sentencing trial. He cased numerous homes with small children about 100 miles to the south, even contacting children at one isolated home. ( Full post )

Done for the day

After 13 witnesses testified, one of them twice, court has wrapped up for the day. Much of the afternoon focused on what was at a series of �way points� that Joseph Duncan marked on his GPS, and what could be seen when one visited those exact spots. One woman testified that one was her home, where her two young grandchildren, then aged 7 and 3, were visiting. Another was the �Learn & Grow� day care center in St. Ignatius, Mont. ( Full post )

'Deep in my dunjun, I welcome you'

Jurors are being taken on a photographic tour of the �way points� Joseph Duncan marked on his GPS in 2005, including a hillside 25 to 30 miles north of Casper, Wyo., where Duncan left an odd inscription on a rock: �Deep in my dunjun (sic), I welcome you here 366231.� ( Full post )

Case is speeding along

Already today, prosecutors have called seven witnesses to testify in the Joseph Duncan sentencing trial. There were seven witnesses called on Friday and eight on Thursday, so that makes 22 so far (though a couple have been repeats), and it�s just midway through the third day of testimony. With a total of about 90 prosecution witnesses expected in the first phase of the sentencing trial, they�re already a quarter of the way done � so this phase may take less than the estimated three weeks. The sentencing trial is divided into two phases; first, jurors will decide if they�ll declare Duncan �eligible� for the death penalty, and then, if so, they�ll move to the second phase to determine which penalty they select � death, or life in prison without the possibility of release. ( Full post )

'My option of remaining silent'

Joseph Duncan submitted a letter to the court first thing this morning asking that he be able to �establish a standing �non-objection� with the court on all evidence submitted, and on all witnesses dismissed.� He also wanted the court to assume that he�s agreed with all stipulations, unless he states otherwise. �I am making this request in accordance to my option of remaining silent during these proceedings,� Duncan wrote. ( Full post )

�Police had a very detailed map of everywhere I was�

Prosecutors have just introduced into evidence a letter that Duncan wrote from prison to Dawn Hauff, in which he wrote, in part, �Okay, I�ll tell you this � even though I shouldn�t, my attorneys and the FBI might get jealous � there was a GPS unit in the Jeep I was driving that was on constantly from the time I left Fargo until my arrest at Dennys. So the police had a very detailed map of everywhere I was.� ( Full post )

'I felt was a little odd'

Enterprise rental car employee Jonathan Hager told the court today that when Joseph Duncan came to his counter in Minneapolis in 2005 to rent a Jeep Cherokee, he didn�t have a reservation and said he wanted the vehicle to take up north to do some scuba diving in the Duluth area, �which at the time I felt was a little odd.� It was April in Minnesota. �The lakes are frozen over still that time of year,� Hager said. ( Full post )

Jurors see hammer, hear about gun theft

FBI Special Agent Mike Gneckow was called back up to testify again today, and this time, he gave the details of how Joseph Duncan stole a shotgun from a turkey shack in Missouri � and Duncan �stipulated� to the agent�s account � that means he officially admits it�s all true. Gneckow also displayed to the jury a �Fat Max� framing hammer of the type that Duncan admits using to kill three members of the Groene family in 2005. ( Full post )

'I was angry that he left'

Dr. Richard Wacksman, the third witness called today, said he first met Joseph Duncan at a coffee shop in San Francisco in 1997, and then kept in touch with him weekly by phone or email. When Duncan moved to Fargo to attend college, Wacksman, a physician who lived in Fargo then, helped get him a car and helped him out financially with tuition and getting an apartment. Wacksman, 55, told the court, �There�s probably a half a dozen people that I�ve helped try to either get in college or finish their high school diploma or G.E.D.� After Wacksman moved away from Fargo in 2002, he stayed in touch with Duncan, who sometimes visited him. ( Full post )