Duncan: Inside the courtroom
'Ripped the soul out of community's sense of place'
"Before 2005, visitors knew Wolf Lodge Bay as a place to eat a famous steak, watch ospreys launch after fish in Lake Coeur d’Alene or find an easy campsite," S-R reporters Thomas Clouse and Jim Camden reported in today’s paper. "Now it’s known for the empty house where a killer and child rapist came searching for prey on May 16, 2005. Along with the sexual assaults and four murders, Joseph Edward Duncan III also ripped the soul out of the community’s sense of place." Here’s a link to their full story on the impact of Duncan’s crimes on the community; here’s a link to S-R reporter Bill Morlin’s report on what comes next for Duncan; and here’s a link to our full story on Wednesday’s events, complete with audio clips.
Duncan’s former stepmom: ‘I’d push the trigger’
S-R reporter Rich Roesler found few of Joseph Duncan’s relatives willing to comment yesterday as a federal jury in Idaho sentenced him to death, but a woman in Tacoma who was involved with Duncan’s father – the two share a son – and first met Duncan as a troubled teen said the jury made the right call. Here is Roesler’s report:
“One of my sons asked `what if it was me that had done that?' and I said `Honey, if you had done that, I would be the one to push the trigger,” said Pat Rybiski, 61. “I don't care how abused or mistreated, there's no excuse for what that man's done.”“The Lord is the one that gets vengeance, the eye for the eye, not we people,” she said. “He guided the jury to that decision.”
Rybiski dated Duncan's father for three years around 1980. Their son, now 27, is Duncan's half-brother.
She said that an investigator for Duncan's lawyers had repeatedly asked her to testify on his behalf during the sentencing. Rybiski refused. She monitored the trial from afar and was revolted by what she learned about the case.
“I was really kind of sick to my stomach thinking that the man had been in my house, close to all three of my children,” she said.
Duncan, then 17, was already in serious trouble when Rybiski met him for the first time. He was committed to a state mental hospital for an evaluation pending his trial for molesting a younger Pierce County boy at gunpoint.
“At the time, I thought `He's a game-player, he tells you what you want to hear. And smart,'” she said.
Later, she said, Duncan visited the family, trying to get to know his half-brother. And as the two boys were talking in the living room, Rybiski said, Duncan said something that startled her.
“He said `People are going to tell you I am a very black soul, and you need to believe that,'” she said. “I remember that very clearly.”
She said she last spoke with Duncan shortly before he went to North Dakota.
Rybiski said she feels sorry for Duncan's family. His brother Bruce died of a sudden heart problem two years ago. His mother lives in Tacoma, where she declined comment Wednesday. His father lived in Las Vegas recently, but has apparently moved.
“It would be hard for a mom and a dad to know that your kid was a demented...I don't know the word. Psychopath,” she said.
Jurors provided with counseling
Jurors who imposed the death penalty on Joseph Duncan have had counseling made available to them by the court, after the horrific things they’ve seen and heard in the course of the sentencing trial. The court confirmed that in a press release this morning, and also confirmed once again that jurors are free to talk with the press if they choose. They were informed of that before they left the courthouse yesterday, but then they boarded vans in the courthouse basement and were whisked out away from the assembled media. I’d very much like to talk with any jurors who are willing to talk. Please contact me through the Eye on Boise blog, or call my Boise office locally at 336-2854, or toll-free from outside the Boise area at (866) 336-2854.
'I just had to be here'
Kootenai County Sheriff's Detective Brad Maskell was celebrating his birthday with his wife when he was summonsed to the Wolf Lodge Bay home May 16, 2005, the day Slade Groene, Brenda Groene and Mark McKenzie were found bludgeoned to death.
Today, more than three years later, Maskell witnessed a jury of nine men and three women sentence Joseph Edward Duncan III to death for his kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene in the Lolo National Forest, where he held the boy and his sister for weeks.
"I just had to be here," he said after the verdict. "I was the guy standing out in the rain that very first night."
Duncan's crime spree deeply affected some authorities charged with investigating it, as heard in court testimony.
In the first day of testimony, former Kootenai County Sheriff's Deputy Dale Moyer, who patrolled the Wolf Lodge Bay are and knew the family well, told the jury the case "pushed me to the end."
"I went into the civilian world for four months to kind of get my head back in the game," said Moyer, now a Spokane County Sheriff's deputy.
In July 2005, Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Wayne Longo, then a sergeant with the Idaho State Police, told The Spokesman-Review: "A lot of us have shed a lot of tears over the eight weeks we've been working this. It's been a roller coaster of emotions. You feel so vulnerable."
Seven more charges still
Joseph Duncan still must appear again before Judge Lodge in Boise for sentencing on the other seven charges to which he’s pleaded guilty. Today, he was sentenced to death for each of the three capital crimes. For the other offenses, for kidnapping and molesting Dylan and Shasta, the judge set Duncan’s sentencing for Oct. 15 at 9:30 a.m.
Kootenai County closes its case
Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas has issued a statement noting that under the plea agreement he reached with Joseph Duncan in the state case, his death sentence on federal charges now concludes the case there. If Duncan hadn’t gotten the death penalty in federal court, under the agreement, he’d have been returned to Kootenai County and a jury would have been convened there to consider the death penalty for the three murders he committed there – those of Brenda Matthews Groene, Mark McKenzie and Slade Groene. “Kootenai County gave up nothing in this plea agreement and kept the death penalty on the table in the event a federal jury did not impose the death penalty,” Douglas said in his statement. “The federal death sentence in Boise means that Kootenai County will stipulate to three consecutive life sentences for the murders. … These crimes have left deep scars, and it is my hope that today’s verdict will give some closure to Shasta, her family, and to our community.”
Tearful jurors to Groene: 'We're so sorry'
S-R reporter Meghann Cuniff saw the emotional scene in the elevator lobby of the federal courthouse, where tearful jurors shook the hand of Steven Groene, father of the victim, while he thanked the jurors. “You made the right decision – don’t ever think you didn’t,” Groene told the jurors. “My family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts.” He told them he was sorry they had to watch the graphic video of his son’s abuse. “I sure hope the government is offering you guys some counseling,” the father said. “I refused it for a long time, and when I eventually did it, it helped a lot.” Most of the jurors were in tears, Cuniff reported, as they, one after another, shook Groene’s hand, telling him over and over again how sorry they were for what happened to his son.
Steve Groene: 'It could've all ended'
Steve Groene, father of the murdered child, emerged from the courthouse and said, “I’d a given him the death penalty after the first day of witnesses.” Groene said, “I’ve told people in the past the only way there’ll be closure is if they let me kill this guy myself,” but he added, “That wouldn’t even do it.” Groene said, “I’m not really happy that another life is going to get taken now.” The whole thing could have ended, he said, with just one life – if Duncan had killed himself, as his journals show he debated doing, instead of going after innocent children. “It could’ve all ended with one life.”
U.S. Attorney: 'Jury gave voice to the victims'
U.S. Attorney Tom Moss, speaking outside the federal courthouse in Boise, said, "The jury speaks the mind of the community. I think by this verdict today they have given voice to the victims and the people who were injured by the circumstances in this case."
Moss said prosecutors had to show the graphic abuse video to jurors to prove "that the crime that was committed was especially heinous, cruel and depraved. This was the best evidence we had of that," adding, "that evidence was critical."
Moss: 'Case was very clear'
U.S. Attorney Tom Moss called the verdict “A good result.”
With FBI Special Agent Mike Gneckow of Coeur d’Alene and FBI Agent Don Robinson standing at his side, Moss said, “It’s a fair result. It’s the result that the law dictates.”
He said, "This case was very clear. This defendant documented what he did.”
Gag order is lifted
Before closing down his courtroom, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge told the court that a sweeping gag order imposed on parties and witnesses to the case is no longer in effect.
"The gag order is now lifted," the judge said.
Grandmother: ‘He will pay for what he’s done’
Darlene Torres, Dylan and Shasta’s grandmother, was the first relative to come out of the courthouse. She said, “I am so glad this is over. Justice has been served. It’s been a long three years.” She said when she looked at Duncan in the courtroom, “I see nothing but an evil, empty cold-hearted shell, that’s all I see.”
She said nothing can be done to Duncan that will relieve her emptiness, “but at least I know he’s not out there hurting anyone else.” She added, “His judgment day is coming yet – he will pay for what he’s done,” referring to when Duncan faces his maker.
The verdict: Death
Joseph Duncan should die for his crimes, a jury of nine men and three women unanimously agreed today after three hours of deliberation. It’s a rare result – one reached only 61 times by federal juries since 1988, during which time juries chose life in prison without the possibility of parole twice as often, 121 times. Prosecutors, in their closing arguments, stressed that if ever a case was the right one for the death penalty, it was Duncan’s.
** There's a verdict **
The jury has reached a verdict, after three hours of deliberation, and the court will go back in session at 2:15 Boise time to hear it.
It's about Dylan
It's Dylan's time for justice.
That could sum up the prosecution's argument. As heard in testimony and repeated in closing arguments, the 9-year-old third grader was "having a good year" when he and his sister were kidnapped from their Wolf Lodge Bay home.
He was improving in his most difficult school subject - reading - and was just starting to take an interest in girls. He kept a bottle of blue cologne in his desk that he'd slap on from time to time, inciting groans from his classmates, testified Tim Marks, the Fernan Elementary teacher who was the boy's last teacher.
He loved Matchbox cars and brought his collection to school with him. He was usually pretty good about them, but sometimes they'd become Marks' for the day.
Tuesday's testimony captured jurors, as reporters in the courtroom saw them nod and smile as Dylan's was portrayed just as he was: a 9-year-old third grader who loved sports and hugs and was fiercely protective of his sister Shasta.
Dylan's story touched people across the nation and even the world. In 2006, Bill Bailey, a North Carolina truck driver, spearheaded a fundraiser that paid for a wall ball structure on the Fernan playground. A plaque dedicates it to Dylan. Donations came from as far as Greece.
Read that story here.
After his remains were recovered from a remote campsite in the Lolo National Forest, 800 people attended his memorial service in Post Falls, held July 16, 2005, the day the boy would have turned ten.
Read that story here
‘He duped his friends – it was an act’
Whelan told the court in her closing argument that each time Duncan was let out of prison, he killed. When he was paroled and moved to Fargo, N.D., “he appeared to have changed,” she said. “It was an act. … He duped his friends, he told them he needed money for an attorney. … Instead he took advantage of their misplaced trust, and he used that money to finance his trip of terror across the country.”
The sentencing trial has included testimony from Dr. Richard Wacksman, formerly of Fargo, who gave Duncan $6,500 for an attorney that Duncan instead used for his crime spree, and from Dave Woelfert of Seattle, who had a “personal relationship” with Duncan, supported him when he was paroled there and paid a down payment on a car for him. Woelfert, who first met Duncan as a pen pal while Duncan was in prison in Washington, wrote to parole officials in 1993, “He is no threat to society whatsoever.”
Not testifying in the sentencing trial was Joe Crary, a Fargo businessman who gave Duncan $15,000 to cover his bail on a child molesting charge in Minnesota. Duncan jumped bail and instead went on his crime spree. Here's a link to a 2005 Spokesman-Review story by Rich Roesler about how Duncan charmed and exploited such friends.
Jurors have been through a lot in this case
The jury pool – 12 jurors and three alternates – dropped down from 15 to 14 yesterday, as one alternate juror, an elderly gentleman, was gone. Judge Edward Lodge said today that that alternate juror was “excused by the court for good cause.” He wasn’t there today, either. The court hasn’t commented on whether jurors will be offered counseling after what they’ve seen and heard in this case.
As they listened to closing arguments today, some jurors clearly were affected. One alternate nodded her head vigorously as Whelan made various points. Another female juror struggled to keep her composure, holding a tissue, sometimes covering her mouth, and wiping at her eyes at the end. Some looked angry at times. All looked somber.
Prosecutor: ‘Death is the appropriate punishment’
In her closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan told the court, “Death is the appropriate punishment in this case – death is the sentence that this defendant has earned, and it is the sentence that is consistent with the law.” A death sentence is not sought lightly, she said. But she went through Duncan’s crimes and his victims, and said, “This defendant is dangerous to all types of people.” Whelan said some might wonder how Duncan could be dangerous if he’s incarcerated for the rest of his life with no possibility of parole, but she said, “This defendant has a history that is so littered with violence. … This defendant is resourceful enough that he may commit additional acts of violence even in a prison. … As a society, we do not check our decency at the prison gate.”
She noted that when Duncan was a Washington state prisoner – he’s spent about half his life in Washington state prisons – he had disciplinary violations including throwing a garbage can lid at a guard and hitting him just below the eye, and being caught with contraband in his cell including wire and razor blades. People who work in the prison system don’t deserve to be exposed to Duncan’s violence, Whelan told the court.
As she spoke, Duncan stopped writing on a yellow legal pad, briefly covered his face with both hands, and seemed to wipe his face with an anguished expression. Then he went back to his most common pose in court, resting his chin on his clasped hands and closing his eyes as if praying. He wasn’t asleep, however. Every so often, he moved his long, pale fingers, scratching at his beard.
'He cared more about his cats'
Before the jury left to weigh whether Duncan deserves life in prison or the death sentence for his crimes against 9-year-old Dylan Groene, Assistant U.S Attorney Traci Whelan reminded the nine men and three women of how Duncan used a similar process to decide whether to commit the horrific crime spree.
"There's no magical formula to this one. You must make a reasoned moral judgment," Whelan said. "The defendant did his own weighing."
The jury was shown the Excel sheet found in Duncan's stolen Jeep the night he was spotted with Shasta at the Coeur d'Alene Denny's.
In it, Duncan covered every aspect of how his crimes could affect his life, Whelan said.
"How it would affect his family. How it would affect his friends. He looked at what would happen and weighed the pros and cons of living out his fantasies," she said.
He even considered how his crimes would affect his cats. But, she said, "he never considered how it would affect a 9-year-old boy."
"He cared more about his cats than he cared about Dylan Groene's life."
That careful process led to Duncan's decision to act on "his selfish sadistic desire to fulfill his fantasy," Whelan said.
This isn't the first time Duncan's interest in cats has come up in the trial. Before kidnapping and killing 10-year-old Anthony Martinez in Riverside County, Calif., Duncan approached the boy and his friends with promises of $1 if they helped him find his missing cat. He even showed them a photo of a feline, 17-year-old Marcos Medina, Anthony's little brother, told the court Monday.
Medina's testimony matched a confession Duncan gave about the murder to FBI Agent Mike Sotka following his July 2005 arrest, according Sotka's testimony.
Shasta's words fill courtroom again
During the prosecution’s closing statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan illustrated some of her points by playing snippets of audio of Shasta Groene’s statements to police just after her rescue from Duncan in 2005. In one, Shasta, just outside the Denny’s restaurant where she was rescued, tearfully told a Coeur d’Alene police officer that her brother was dead, and described his murder. “You saw all that?” the officer said. Shasta, crying, said, “And then we burnt his body,” and she broke into sobs.
Whelan also played the clip in which Shasta talked about how Joseph Duncan called her 9-year-old brother a coward. “He wanted to show Jet that he wasn’t a coward, and he really wasn’t, he was very, very brave,” the little girl’s voice declared. Whelan echoed that. “He was a very, very brave boy,” Whelan told the court.
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When three bodies were discovered at a North Idaho home on May 16, 2005, no one could anticipate the extent of the shocking story that would unfold. A weeks-long search for two missing children ended July 2 when 8-year-old Shasta Groene was discovered with a convicted sex offender at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant. Her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, was found dead at a remote Montana campsite. Joseph Edward Duncan III has admitted guilt to the horrific crimes. He now faces a possible death penalty for the murder of Dylan.