Idaho boy's killer can get death

BOISE — A man who kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered a 9-year-old Idaho boy was deemed eligible for the death penalty by a jury on Friday, soon after the killer himself came close to thanking prosecutors for showing the panel sickening videos of him abusing the child.

The jury deliberated for two hours before issuing its unanimous ruling. When the hearing resumes next week, jurors must decide whether Joseph Edward Duncan III should be put to death for killing Dylan Groene in 2005.

Friday's verdict was not surprising after Duncan's closing argument, in which he told the jurors they didn't yet "have a clue" about the depths of his "heinousness."

Duncan, 45, didn't react to the verdict. The slain boy's father, Steven Groene, and other family supporters embraced after the verdict but seemed to keep their emotions in check.

Duncan, acting as his own attorney, will have the chance next week to persuade jurors to give him life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of a death sentence. The jury's sentencing recommendation is binding on U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge.

Duncan pleaded guilty to 10 federal felonies for the trauma he inflicted on Dylan Groene and his then-8-year-old sister, Shasta, in May 2005 after murdering their older brother, their mother and her fiance in the Coeur d'Alene area. Duncan pleaded guilty to those three murders in state court, where he also could be sentenced to death.

He kidnapped the two young children and took them deep into the Lolo National Forest, where he sexually abused and tortured them for weeks. He ultimately shot the boy point-blank in the head while his sister watched. He was arrested after returning with Shasta to Coeur d'Alene, where a waitress recognized the girl as the two ate at a Denny's restaurant.

Jurors cringed and cried when they viewed videos Duncan made in which he molested, tortured and hanged Dylan Groene until the boy was unconscious and nearly dead. Duncan told the panel that government lawyers helped him victimize the jurors by making them watch and listen to the evidence.

"I should actually thank the government for helping me get my eye for an eye by showing you the evidence that you've seen, the videos," Duncan said during his closing argument Friday.

Duncan, a convicted pedophile originally from Tacoma, Wash., told jurors that by presenting the evidence, the government was "helping me to take away your heart and your innocence."