Sister of convicted killer Duncan tells judge about abuse
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The sister of a convicted killer who waived his right to appeal his death sentence says they both endured horrific childhood abuse at the hands of their mother.
Cheri Cox was in Boise's U.S. District Court Wednesday to testify in the competency hearing of Joseph Edward Duncan III, who was sentenced to death in 2008 after admitting he kidnapped and tortured two northern Idaho children before killing one of them in Montana.
Duncan gave up his appeals, but his attorneys fought on his behalf and last year the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge to hold a retrospective competency hearing to determine if Duncan was mentally competent back in 2008 when he gave up his right to appeal.
Cox testified about what it was like growing up with Duncan in their childhood home. Cox said she and her four siblings were frequently beaten by their mother while she ranted that men were worthless, and described her mother as a crazy woman who attended church obsessively, every day.
Prosecutors did not question testimony Wednesday that Duncan's mother was abusive, and The Associated Press could not immediately find contact information to reach her for comment.
Duncan, who was the second-youngest of the five children, was passive in the face of the beatings, Cox said.
"When she was beating on you, if you fought back, it was worse," Cox said. "In his case, he just took what she gave and kind of whimpered off into his bedroom."
Their father, who was in the military and often deployed, was frequently the subject of their mother's derision.
Cox said she left home at 17 and only saw Duncan once after that, several years later when he was a patient at a Washington state psychiatric hospital.
Years later, her sister called to see if she'd heard or seen from Duncan because no one had talked to him in some time.
Cox responded that she hadn't. She was boating just a week or so later when she heard Duncan's name during a radio news story.
"And then I heard my brother had been arrested for the," she said, pausing, "thing in Idaho."
Duncan's defense team also called Duncan's former attorney, John Adams, to the stand.
Adams represented Duncan during his state court trial for the murders of Brenda and Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie, crimes that Duncan ultimately pleaded guilty to as part of a plea deal that left him with six consecutive life sentences.
"He was a broken man," Adams said about his first impression of Duncan. "He was frightened and desperate and confused ... It was often hard to follow what he was talking about because he was talking about things that weren't relevant."
Duncan often seemed to ramble in a sort of stream-of-consciousness way, Adams said, about metaphysical and religious things. The attorney never asked the court for a competency hearing or formally notified the state judge that he feared Duncan may be mentally incompetent, he said, but he believed that Duncan's mental status was "touch and go."
Still, Adams said he believed that on the day Duncan entered his guilty plea to the murders in state court, Duncan was competent to make that decision.
"I wouldn't assist a person in a guilty plea that would result in six consecutive life sentences unless I was comfortable that he knew what he was doing," Adams said.
Adams choked up once when discussing how he tried to persuade Duncan to take the plea deal to avoid a death sentence in state court.
"I told him, I expressed that I cared about him. ... I thought that he could still have a life," Adams said.
He later said his role as a defense attorney was to help his client avoid the death chamber.
"There's enough people around to condemn them and blame them and heap scorn on them. My job is to represent them ... to keep them off death row," Adams said.
Duncan kidnapped 9-year-old Dylan Groene and Dylan's younger sister from their Wolf Lodge, Idaho, home after killing several of their family members in 2005. He kept the children in the Montana wilderness for weeks before killing Dylan and returning with Dylan's sister to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where he was arrested.
He was sentenced to life in prison in Idaho state court for the Wolf Lodge murders, and to life in prison in California state court for the murder of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez in 1997 - a crime he confessed to after the Idaho murders. Duncan has also told investigators that he killed 11-year-old Sammiejo White and her 9-year-old half-sister, Carmen Cubias, near Seattle in 1996, but he has never been charged in their deaths.
Cheri Cox was in Boise's U.S. District Court Wednesday to testify in the competency hearing of Joseph Edward Duncan III, who was sentenced to death in 2008 after admitting he kidnapped and tortured two northern Idaho children before killing one of them in Montana.
Duncan gave up his appeals, but his attorneys fought on his behalf and last year the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge to hold a retrospective competency hearing to determine if Duncan was mentally competent back in 2008 when he gave up his right to appeal.
Cox testified about what it was like growing up with Duncan in their childhood home. Cox said she and her four siblings were frequently beaten by their mother while she ranted that men were worthless, and described her mother as a crazy woman who attended church obsessively, every day.
Prosecutors did not question testimony Wednesday that Duncan's mother was abusive, and The Associated Press could not immediately find contact information to reach her for comment.
Duncan, who was the second-youngest of the five children, was passive in the face of the beatings, Cox said.
"When she was beating on you, if you fought back, it was worse," Cox said. "In his case, he just took what she gave and kind of whimpered off into his bedroom."
Their father, who was in the military and often deployed, was frequently the subject of their mother's derision.
Cox said she left home at 17 and only saw Duncan once after that, several years later when he was a patient at a Washington state psychiatric hospital.
Years later, her sister called to see if she'd heard or seen from Duncan because no one had talked to him in some time.
Cox responded that she hadn't. She was boating just a week or so later when she heard Duncan's name during a radio news story.
"And then I heard my brother had been arrested for the," she said, pausing, "thing in Idaho."
Duncan's defense team also called Duncan's former attorney, John Adams, to the stand.
Adams represented Duncan during his state court trial for the murders of Brenda and Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie, crimes that Duncan ultimately pleaded guilty to as part of a plea deal that left him with six consecutive life sentences.
"He was a broken man," Adams said about his first impression of Duncan. "He was frightened and desperate and confused ... It was often hard to follow what he was talking about because he was talking about things that weren't relevant."
Duncan often seemed to ramble in a sort of stream-of-consciousness way, Adams said, about metaphysical and religious things. The attorney never asked the court for a competency hearing or formally notified the state judge that he feared Duncan may be mentally incompetent, he said, but he believed that Duncan's mental status was "touch and go."
Still, Adams said he believed that on the day Duncan entered his guilty plea to the murders in state court, Duncan was competent to make that decision.
"I wouldn't assist a person in a guilty plea that would result in six consecutive life sentences unless I was comfortable that he knew what he was doing," Adams said.
Adams choked up once when discussing how he tried to persuade Duncan to take the plea deal to avoid a death sentence in state court.
"I told him, I expressed that I cared about him. ... I thought that he could still have a life," Adams said.
He later said his role as a defense attorney was to help his client avoid the death chamber.
"There's enough people around to condemn them and blame them and heap scorn on them. My job is to represent them ... to keep them off death row," Adams said.
Duncan kidnapped 9-year-old Dylan Groene and Dylan's younger sister from their Wolf Lodge, Idaho, home after killing several of their family members in 2005. He kept the children in the Montana wilderness for weeks before killing Dylan and returning with Dylan's sister to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where he was arrested.
He was sentenced to life in prison in Idaho state court for the Wolf Lodge murders, and to life in prison in California state court for the murder of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez in 1997 - a crime he confessed to after the Idaho murders. Duncan has also told investigators that he killed 11-year-old Sammiejo White and her 9-year-old half-sister, Carmen Cubias, near Seattle in 1996, but he has never been charged in their deaths.
Surely if the life goes on after the horrific murders of beautiful, innocent children then so it will go when Duncan is put to death. The lawyers need not lose sleep over the productive life that monster could have still lead.
There is no reason for this thing to live any longer. Just finish it.
Look at the evil in Joseph Duncan's eyes. He's the devil in disguise, and he knows it. There are some people who we are all better off with not having on this earth, and he rises to the top of the list.
Â
This situation is a perfect example of why our legal/justice system must be changed. I've long since tired of the people who think someone like this POS should be given an opportunity to receive three square meals a day, and a roof over his head at our expense, plus the millions of dollars of our tax money that is being spent to keep this beast alive for one more stinkin' day.Â
Â
How about an eye for an eye?Â
Â
Joseph is heinous beyond any description we could create. I wish all of those with a bleeding heart could put themselves in the shoes of the beautiful, innocent, young children, as well as the two adults that he brutally tortured and murdered right before their lives were snubbed out by him. Maybe that would change their perspective on why it's not such a bad idea to rid ourselves of someone like Joseph Duncan, who will never be a sane or functioning member of our society, and probably never was.
This waste of skin needs to fry. Good for nothing at all.
Skip the legal wrangling and save the cash. Sentence him to life without parole, then put him in with the general population. Somebody would shank him within a week. Done!
If he was found competant to stand trial & has waived his rtight of appeal, why are the attorneys "fiughting on his behalf" (at taxpayers expense, of course)?
@LocalLady Because scum lawyers need to make money any way they can.
My brothers and I grew up with our dad, who was both verbally & physically abusive to us. He was mean. We were told we were stupid. When he got mad and would lose his temper, he would stomp on us, kick us, throw us across the room, slam us into things, whip us with a belt, etc. Me and my three brothers all turned out very well and none of us are mean spirited, we don't hurt others or get physical or verbally abusive with others.  I can say people have a choice in life to rise above that and the ability to change.  When we are kids, we can't always change the situation we are in, but as we become adults, we have the power to do so. I don't feel bad for abusers, because they do have a choice to change if they really want to.  It didn't make me hate men because of my dad.  I get tired of people using that for an excuse and playing the poor me syndrome.  By the way, when I got my first job right after high school graduation, I realized I really wasn't stupid like I had been told all those years. I've done well in my career.
If ever someone deserved death, this guy does in my opinion and it would seem in his opinion also. Â Give him death, that's what he wants. Â I have worked with many people who came from horrible abuse in their homes - their own parents - stories I cannot even repeat here - none of them ever think of doing the same or worse abuse to children or anybody. Â They know what it feels like and they don't want to do that. Â Making excuses is what we are good at when the consequences to the action comes up, but it won't wash here. Â I could more understand it if he tried to or killed his mother, but not this sick crap.
Gosh - I suffered every kind of abuse as a kid - I didn't grow up to harm others in ANY way! I chose NOT to be that way. He chose TO be that way. No excuse. Let's quit calling him a maggot or pond scum - that's insulting to the maggots and pond scum of rhe earth!
No mercy. He showed none to the children he killed (Idaho child and one in California). Why should he be shown any? He chose to do evil things to innocent children. There are many, many people who have grown up in abusive environments, and don't engage in evil acts.
Jeez, even he doesn't think he's worth saving.Â
It would be interesting to know what became of the other siblings. Â Did they too go on to abuse children or was Joseph the only one? Â I would also be interested to understand if he somehow got it worse than the other siblings. Â
Regardless - he's done way too much evil for anything less then the death penalty to be justified. Â He is a perfect example of why the death penalty exists.
 @suzthemuse I know people who were abused far worse than what is described in this article and they turned out to be good people. I have no sympathy for him at all. God can show him mercy, humans just need to keep him away from all other potential victims however that is done.
The fact that this evil, maggot is still alive FIVE years after its' crimes proves that our "system" of justice is hosed.
This . . . thing . . should have its' useless veins filled with Draino before the sun goes down tonight.
. period .
This comment has been deleted
 @deadcandance;Â
While I agree with your sentiments, do you REALLY want that piece of trash hanging in your yard for the amount of time it would take to rot? What a horrible thing to look at as you let time take it's course.
Hey Sis, you should have tried to get your brother help before he kidnapped and murdered children. Now is a little late.
 @TP - sure, blame the sister.  Ever think he didn't want 'help'?  She's just trying to make excuses, I don't think she does what he did or maybe we haven't heard yet.
 @Elaine2 All I am saying is she's a bit late in speaking up. She's known about the abuse for how long? There's been plenty of time to seek professional help. I'm not blaming her for what he did, but I am calling her out for acting like there's a valid excuse for the actions he took.
 @Elaine2  @TP I agree - there's nothing the sister could've done to "get him help" unless she knew beforehand what he was going to do then she could try to get him committed - but it would only last for 72 hours and they'd kick him out again. But it does sound like she's making excuses for him and sadly there is no excuse. One day she will have to admit that there is no reason he did these things other than he's a monster.
I don't care what type of abuse this maggot endured when he was a child. I don't buy that whole "I was abused so I'm going to abuse" B.S. He's an evil, evil beast and deserves a slow and painful death, feeling the same helpless, paralizing fear that his victims did. He should die screaming.
Quit making excuses for this kind of behavior! He chose to do what he did.
 @The WA Mama he apparently is and has... but the family and his lawyers are still continuing the fight for him... seriously who is more sane here... him or his family trying to save him from his choice to waive appeal and take punishment...
Well...in this case, if the shoe fits...I'd say his mom was right about being worthless.Â
What in the world has this to do with putting this sleaze ball down for good? Smoke and mirrors from bleeding hearts. Stick a needle in him, heâs long past pull date.Â
 @oldster70 apparently they need to go after his family and lawyer because they are the ones keeping this going now...he however has accepted his punishment as he waived appeal of his death sentence...
 @Freespeech  @oldster70 He probably thinks death would be easier than being locked up so he's looking for an easy way out.
Boo hoo ! So he understands what it is like to beaten and yet does far, far worse to other children......that ABSOLUTELY makes zero sense ! I hope this piece of crap hangs high and and suffers but he will never suffer the way the little boy he tortured and murdered.