Duncan sentencing: Jury hears girl's account of abuse

BOISE — A little girl who is the sole survivor of a murderous attack on her family told detectives soon after her rescue that she was raped by Joseph Edward Duncan III and forced to watch him torture, molest and kill her older brother.

The videotaped interview with Shasta Groene, played for a federal jury Tuesday, is the latest account of the days that Shasta, 8 at the time, and her brother, Dylan, 9, spent with Duncan after he abducted them from their home east of Coeur d'Alene in 2005.

Duncan, a convicted pedophile from Tacoma who is acting as his own attorney, pleaded guilty in December to 10 federal counts involving the kidnapping and torture of the children and the slaying of Dylan at a remote campsite in western Montana. Three of those counts carry a potential death penalty.

The jury is being asked to decide whether Duncan should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole.

The interview presented in court was taped shortly after Shasta was rescued.

The children were abducted from their home in May 2005 after Duncan fatally bludgeoned their mother, Brenda Groene, their brother Slade, 13, and their mother's fiance, Mark McKenzie.