Closing arguments completed Friday morning

COEUR d'ALENE - Passionate closing arguments lasted through the morning Friday in Eldon Samuel III's double-murder trial, and jurors began deliberating at lunch time.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Art Verharen focused his argument on the "prolonged" and "purposeful" attack of 13-year-old brother Jonathan Samuel, who was autistic. He said the brother was a helpless victim, and Samuel wielded multiple weapons on him in a gruesome attack that required effort just to reach the brother who was hiding under his bed.

Samuel had to move the box spring and mattress to get at the boy, who was 11 months younger.

Chief Public Defender John Adams told the jury his client sometimes hated his brother and father, and sometimes loved them. Adams argued that a lot of people feel both emotions for family members at times.

"You have to decide what his state of mind was" at the time of the killings, Adams argued. "They lived a life in total isolation and desperation" ... moving from "one dark, smelly, dirty house to the next" over the course of Samuel and his brother's short lives.

After shooting his father, 46-year-old Eldon Samuel Jr., his client's "brain snapped."

He turned on his brother who was likely screaming from their father's shooting.

"You can only take so much," Adams said. "His entire universe had exploded."

Samuel, who was 14 at the time of the incident and is now 16, is charged with first-degree murder for killing his brother. Jurors could alternatively find him guilty of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter through perpetration of an unlawful act. He could also be acquitted.

"It takes determination to do what he did to his brother," Verharen said.

Verharen argued the attack was done out of jealousy for the attention and preferential treatment the brother received. He said Samuel hated his brother and mutilated his dead body, stabbing shotgun wounds and inflicting other injuries both before and after he died.

Samuel was his brother's primary caretaker outside school because his parents couldn't do it, as the mother lived in California and the father was constantly on drugs.

Verharen said the jurors didn't need a controversial police interrogation of Samuel to find him guilty of murder. That interrogation was done without an attorney present, right after he was arrested. Samuel admitted to the killings in that extensive interrogation.

"All you have to do in this case is look at the physical evidence," Verharen said.

Jonathan Samuel was shot 9 or 10 times, and stabbed or chopped at with a knife and machete 100 times.

His father was a violent man, and he had hit Samuel in the arms or chest just prior to the shootings. Verharen questioned if shooting his father was a justified self-defense for Samuel, and if there was adequate provocation at the time.

"Your job is to determine if what he did to his dad is reasonable," Verharen said.

If the jury doesn't find Samuel is guilty of second-degree murder for killing his father, they can find him guilty of either voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter through perpetration of an unlawful act.

Samuel shot his father in the belly in Samuel's bedroom. His father crawled through the living room to Jonathan Samuel's room, dying as he leaned against a nightstand. Samuel shot him three more times in the cheek and head.

Those final three shots, Verharen argued, negated any claim of self defense. And, he said, sons aren't justified shooting their fathers for pushing or hitting them a couple times. Samuel had claimed his father had abused him previous to the March 24, 2014 killings.

"Zombies, that's the last thing I want to talk about," Verharen said, calling any defense based on paranoia the Samuel family had about an imminent zombie apocalypse "ridiculous."

"When you think (the zombie defense) through, it falls apart," Verharen said.

"He was entitled to protect himself" from his violent father, Adams said. According to testimony during the trial, Eldon Samuel Jr. had stocked the home with weapons and had plans to run to the mountains in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

Adams concluded that the brother's killing was not cold-blooded.

"Don't make any more tragedy for this kid" and the family, Adams told the jury.

Verharen said having horrible parents, who were both abusive drug addicts, was not an excuse for these killings. First District Judge Benjamin Simpson will make sure Samuel gets a fair sentence if he is convicted, Verharen said.

"You have to trust the judge is going to do the right thing with Eldon," Verharen said.