Defense expert: Killings not premeditated

COEUR d'ALENE — A neuropsychologist who completed a forensic mental health assessment on Eldon Samuel III testified Tuesday the teenager was incapable of acting deliberately when he killed his father and younger brother.

"Eldon was in a very highly charged emotional state," said Craig W. Beaver, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology and studies the brain and its relationship with behavior. "I don't think he had the capacity to form intent."

Beaver, of Boise, reviewed case materials, including the 911 call Samuel made to report the killings and his interrogation with police investigators. He read through mental health records, interviewed family members and studied other items. He also spent hours interviewing and testing Samuel before reaching his conclusions.

Samuel, who was 14 at the time of the killings in Coeur d'Alene on March 24, 2014, could not have weighed the consequences of killing his brother, 13-year-old Jonathan, who had autism, or their father, 46-year-old Eldon Samuel Jr.

"He was in survival mode," said Beaver, a defense witness.

Samuel shot his father, who was often violent in the past and had begun hitting him in the chest and threatening to kick him out of the house.

He turned on his brother, shooting him repeatedly. He then hacked away at him with a machete and stabbed him numerous times with a knife.

"In my opinion, he lacked the ability to understand what he was doing at that point," Beaver said.

Shortly before the killings, Beaver testified, the father had been outside the home shooting a gun and was freaked out by zombies. The father was most violent when he was high on prescription medication.

Looking back at the weeks and months leading to the killings, Beaver said, Samuel was an isolated teen who never had nurturing parents and was abused, neglected and constantly depressed. He was bullied in school, when he actually went, and had only one friend, who was back in California, where Samuel and his brother and father moved from to North Idaho.

Samuel's impoverished family had moved constantly because of evictions, always living in squalid and unsanitary conditions and often without power or heat, surviving on a single meal per day. A dinner of Hamburger Helper was a special treat.

He had rotten teeth and suffered from constant headaches, which were due to chronic lack of sleep, tension and poor diet, Beaver testified.

He constantly played violent video games with his father, who rarely worked. If they did leave the house it was to go shoot guns in the woods for target practice.

If his brother acted up and got in trouble, his father punished Samuel — who while 11 months older, was his primary caretaker outside school. The windows of their home were always covered up and the back door was nailed shut to keep the zombies out. Samuel was vitamin deficient from lack of sunlight.

Beaver said Samuel felt that his life was in danger many times.

"He was frightened that his father would shoot him," he said.

He also feared his father would abandon him. His drug-addict mother was no longer in the picture, as Tina Samuel stayed in California after the boys and their father moved. Eldon Samuel Jr. had pointed loaded guns at her, Beaver said.

Such an upbringing changes the way a person views the world around them, he said. As Beaver reviewed with the jury what he found in his study of the case and during his time spent with Samuel, Public Defender Linda Payne was fighting tears at one point and had to turn away from the jury until she could fully compose herself.

On the day of the killings, Beaver continued, the home was loaded with guns, ammunition, knives and other weapons, in preparation for a zombie apocalypse the family had long been preparing for. After the dad started punching him in the chest, Samuel grabbed a handgun.

"He knows this is a high-risk time," Beaver said.

Samuel shot his father in the abdomen, causing massive blood loss and death. The father crawled through the home from Samuel's bedroom to Jonathan's bedroom. Eldon Samuel Jr. died there, and Samuel fired three rounds into his head. Defense attorneys have argued that was done to prevent the father from turning into a zombie.

The brother was hiding under his bed, as usual. Samuel shot him after lifting up the mattress. He then hit him in the head repeatedly with the machete.

Early in his testimony, Beaver recalled the skinny and quiet little 14-year-old he first met and interviewed in April 2014, shortly after the gruesome killings. He said Samuel was socially awkward and immature and "flat" emotionally.

He said Samuel, during interviews, would often digress into "magical thinking," where zombies were real and Samuel believed he was able to predict the future.

He has continued visiting Samuel and watched him grow physically and mature. He said Samuel gets excited these days about clean jail clothes, hot showers, eating three meals a day, and getting recreation time with other kids his age. He also has had major work done on his teeth.

He said Samuel has learned to have a sense of humor.

"He still has a tendency to drift out of the conversation," he said.

Beaver will continue on the witness stand today under cross-examination by prosecutors. The double-murder trial could end this week.