COEUR d'ALENE — Eldon Samuel III's defense team continued Monday calling witnesses to describe the boy's parents' prescription-drug abuse and his brother's "aggressive" behavior related to autism.

But the Kootenai County jurors also heard from somebody who lived under the same roof as Eldon Samuel III, his 11-month younger brother Jonathan Samuel and their father, Eldon Samuel Jr.

Half-sister Natasha Samuel — a daughter of Eldon Samuel Jr.'s from a previous 11-year marriage to Cherie Martinez — took the stand very briefly. Defense lawyers are trying to lay out a narrative they think might justify the shooting death of Eldon Samuel Jr. as self-defense, based on testimony that he abused Eldon Samuel III and was often violent with others, too.

"He was pretty much violent all the time," Natasha Samuel, who is 28 and lives near Sacramento, said of her slain father. She lived with the boys, their father, and her stepmother, Tina Samuel, for a short period of time in 2010 or 2011, she recalled.

Natasha Samuel's mother, Cherie Martinez, told the jury she was married to Eldon Samuel Jr. from 1986 to 1997, but she didn't get past that. The jury was excused and lawyers argued about what she could say on the stand.

First District Court Judge Benjamin Simpson ruled that anything Martinez had to say about her late husband was irrelevant to this case because it was so far removed from the March 24, 2014, killings of 46-year-old Eldon Samuel Jr. and 13-year-old Jonathan Samuel in Coeur d'Alene. Eldon Samuel Jr. and the boys moved to North Idaho from California after the father and the boys' mother, Tina Samuel, broke up.

"Too old," Simpson told the defense attorneys and prosecutors, referring to Martinez's memories of her former husband.

By the time jurors returned to the courtroom Martinez was gone.

Public Defender Linda Payne wanted Martinez to share how Eldon Samuel Jr. loaded up on weapons back during their marriage, played violent video games constantly instead of going to work, abused drugs, and was often violent. Payne hoped to show a pattern of behavior that stretched back years.

"The relevance is habit," Payne told Simpson before the judge made his ruling. "He was violent with her as well."

The defense is scheduled to call in its expert witnesses today as the trial continues.

Eldon Samuel III, now 16, is being tried as an adult for the killings he committed when he was 14. His defense lawyers have acknowledged he killed the two family members, and they are working to defend him based on his state of mind at the time.