Jury hears more about brother who was killed

Defense witnesses paint picture of ‘aggressive’ boy who would ‘target’ school staff members

COEUR d'ALENE — Jurors in teenager Eldon Samuel III's double-murder trial learned just a little more Friday about Jonathan Samuel, the brother who was 11 months younger, had autism and was brutally shot and chopped with a machete on March 24, 2014.

In brief periods on the witness stand in the 1st District Court trial, witnesses called by Eldon Samuel's defense team shared anecdotes about the younger boy. Samuel, who is 16 and being tried as an adult, is charged with murder for killing his 13-year-old brother and their father, Eldon Samuel Jr., in a Coeur d'Alene home.

While the defense has worked to show the father was a violent man and that he was killed by Samuel in self-defense, nothing had been presented to jurors to explain why the brother was killed.

Testimony by teachers and others called by the defense Friday tended to paint the younger brother as "aggressive" and a student who would "target" school staff members. In contrast, defense witnesses described Eldon Samuel III as an ideal inmate since his arrest and a quiet and polite student when he was in school — and the one left to care for his brother because his parents were drug addicts.

"There were a lot of red-flag issues with Jonny," said Kim Hamby, a school leader from Turlock, Calif. The boys and their father lived in California before moving to Coeur d'Alene.

"Jonny was very disruptive," said Kellee Yoder, a special education teacher at Sierra Vista Child and Family Services in California. Jonathan Samuel was her student from October 2011 to May 2012.

"Did he have any unusual behaviors?" Public Defender Linda Payne asked.

"He did," Yoder responded.

Teachers described Jonathan as a kid who showed up to school with nearly perfect attendance, but was often dirty, in ragged clothes, and had to be taught how to clean himself. He had a few peculiar behavioral habits, too, like having fun memorizing people's birth dates and drawing female breasts.

Jonathan Samuel attended Canfield Middle School before he was killed.

To further paint a picture of their client, defense attorneys called employees of the Kootenai County Juvenile Detention Center where Samuel is staying.

Detention center staff members said he talks more since he arrived, smiles and laughs occasionally, and has grown several inches, put on weight and gotten stronger through exercise. He spends a lot of time reading.

They said he has earned "honor status" at the detention facility.

Linda Hoss, assistant director of the facility, said only eight kids have received that status for good behavior in the 23 years she has worked there.

"He has a little bit of a sense of humor (now)," Hoss said. "He didn't understand jokes" detention center staff members made when he first was jailed there.

Other doctors and teachers are scheduled to testify Monday in the trial, and the defense team plans to call its expert witnesses Tuesday.

The trial could wrap up next week.

"I don't know if we'll finish next week," Judge Benjamin Simpson told the jury Friday. "It will be really close."