Man Pleads Guilty to Murder, Kidnapping
The man accused of kidnapping two children from their Idaho home and killing their family pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping in a deal that still leaves him eligible for the death penalty.
Joseph E. Duncan III, 43, was charged with bludgeoning two adults and a teenager to death at the home near Coeur d’Alene in 2005 so he could kidnap the family’s youngest children for sex.
He is to be sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole. But authorities said sentencing would be postponed pending federal prosecution in which the sole survivor, 9-year-old Shasta Groene, is expected to testify against the man accused of holding her captive in the woods for seven weeks.
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