Idaho Kidnapper To Admit To 4 Killings

Lawyers for Joseph Edward Duncan III said Wednesday he will admit to the murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene in Montana and to three slayings in Idaho — if prosecutors will drop the death penalty option.

In a letter to Kootenai County, Idaho, Prosecutor Bill Douglas, Duncan's lawyers said their client will cooperate fully with law enforcement officers, even though he will face a possible death sentence in federal court later.

"Mr. Duncan will admit to the intentional killing of Dylan Groene in Montana in the early part of 2005, as well as all other crimes committed against Shasta and Dylan Groene," said the letter, given to The Associated Press and signed by public defenders John Adams and Roger Peven.

Douglas did not immediately respond to the letter, dated Oct. 4, but has consistently rejected a plea bargain for Duncan.

Duncan is accused of killing the children's mother, their 13-year old brother, and their mother's boyfriend in May 2005 at their home near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. His trial on those counts is to begin Monday in 1st District Court in Coeur d'Alene.

Court documents allege Duncan, who spent most of his adult life in Washington prisons for sexual crimes against children, committed the slayings so he could kidnap the two children for sex.

Duncan allegedly took the two children to a primitive campsite in Montana, and Dylan was killed at some point. Shasta, now 9, was rescued at a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene after seven weeks of captivity.

Peven said Duncan is willing to plead guilty to spare Shasta Groene the trauma of having to testify in court against him.

"It's the right thing to do," Peven told The Associated Press. "Mr. Duncan doesn't advantage himself in any way."

Duncan understands that by making the confessions, he will make it easier for the federal government to convict him of expected charges of kidnapping and murder in the abduction of Shasta and Dylan when the state case concludes, Peven said.