Jurors see video, pictures of crime scene in Samuel murder trial

COEUR d'ALENE — Teenager Eldon G. Samuel III unloaded on his younger brother, Jonathan Samuel, shooting him 10 times using a shotgun and handgun. He also inflicted roughly 100 other wounds using a knife and machete on March 24, 2014, according to opening statements and testimony Wednesday in Samuel's double-murder trial.

He shot his father, 46-year-old Eldon Samuel Jr., in the center of his abdomen. His father crawled through the tiny Coeur d'Alene house they were calling home at 1311 N. First St., bleeding profusely before dying in a small back bedroom. Samuel then fired three rounds through his lifeless father's head. His 13-year-old brother bled out from his gunshot wounds, and police found the boy's bloody body sprawled on his father's legs.

Along with hearing opening statements from lawyers in the case, the jury viewed crime-scene video and photographs recorded by police, then ended the day looking at autopsy photographs showing the grisly aftermath of Samuel's actions. His defense lawyer has conceded Samuel did the killing, opting to challenge the charges against him based on his state of mind at the time.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Art Verharen told the jury that Samuel hated his brother, who had autism and got special treatment from their father, and wanted him gone. Verharen said Samuel told police his father beat him.

Defense attorney John Adams said Samuel was the one who took care of his brother, because his parents were violent pill-popping criminals.

"That's how he was brought up," Adams said.

He said the father received 562 prescriptions between 2003 and 2013, from 36 different doctors. Many of the pills were hydrocodone.

Tina Samuel was in the courtroom Wednesday when Adams broke down her pill intake: 789 prescriptions, from 52 doctors. She didn't live with her sons and their father at the time of the killings.

It isn't known how many pills they actually obtained during that time, just what records Adams found showed.

Eldon Samuel, who was 14 at the time of the killings and a student at Lakes Magnet Middle School, often missed school, Adams said. His father kept him isolated, kept the windows blocked out so zombies couldn't see into the home.

"(His father) trained him for the zombie apocalypse," Adams said.

Crime scene photographs and video showed the house was cluttered with dirty clothes, blankets, dishes, trash and pill bottles. Weapons were lying all over the house, including several guns, multiple knives, machetes, hatchets, throwing stars, brass knuckles, a baseball bat and golf club. Ammunition filled a large duffle bag and sat on shelves.

Inside Samuel's bedroom were stacks of video games and, among other items, a black "Fear the Reaper" hat.

A trail of blood connected Samuel's bedroom to the living room, where there was a large blood stain in the middle of the room. In the back bedroom where the two bodies were found, blood was on the ceiling, walls and furniture.

Just before the killings, Adams said, Samuel's father threatened to kick Samuel out of the house, with no clothes, if he didn't help fight the zombies outside that day.

The jury heard the 911 call Samuel made after killings.

"My dad tried to kill me — I shot him," Samuel could be heard saying quietly and calmly on the recording. He said his dad was hitting him.

Dr. Sally Aiken, a medical examiner from Spokane County who conducted the autopsies on the brother and father, was the final witness Wednesday. She took jurors through numerous detailed photographs of the wounds.

The brother suffered shotgun blasts to the legs and stab wounds throughout his body. The most gruesome picture shown to the jury was of the back of Jonathan Samuel's head, where Eldon Samuel appeared to have chopped at him with a machete.

His hands and wrists also appeared to have been chopped with the weapon.

"The right wrist was nearly amputated," Aiken said.

She said Jonathan Samuel likely died of the multiple firearm wounds and the cumulative blood loss. Many of the stab and chop wounds were inflicted after he died, she said.

Adams, the defense attorney, said Samuel was taught "you have to kill the brain" after someone dies so they don't turn into a zombie.

Samuel, who is now 16 and being tried as an adult, is charged with first-degree murder for his brother's death and second-degree murder for his father's. The trial resumes today in 1st District Court at the former federal courthouse downtown.