COEUR d’ALENE — Steve Groene had one piece of evidence this week that he hoped would allow him to stay in a house built for his daughter, Shasta Groene, by volunteers who want to evict him.

After three hours of listening to testimony from trustees and attorneys for the Shasta Groene Charitable Trust, Steve Groene, who is representing himself in the First District Court civil trial pulled his trump card.

He had a notarized copy of a letter from his daughter, who was kidnapped in a horrific criminal case 13 years ago, relinquishing her interest in the property on the 2300 block of east French Gulch Road to her dad.

The property was purchased by the trust as a place for Shasta, now 21, to stay following her ordeal at the hands of Joseph Duncan.

Trustees want to sell the property where Steve Groene has resided rent-free for more than a decade, to support Shasta and her educational pursuits in southern Idaho until she is 25 years old.

Shasta Groene was 8 years old when she and her 9-year-old brother Dylan were abducted by Joseph Duncan after he killed their older brother, their mother and her fiance with a hammer at the family’s Coeur d’Alene home.

Duncan lived with the siblings at a remote campsite in Montana, where he abused and tortured them for weeks before killing Dylan and burning his body.

Duncan was arrested after returning with Shasta to Coeur d’Alene, where a waitress at a Denny’s restaurant recognized them and called authorities.

In the lawsuit, Steve Groene contends that he has a legal interest in the house built by trustees for Shasta, because his homelessness and medical conditions were used as a marketing tool to raise money and solicit donations to buy the land, and build the French Gulch Road house that is valued around $240,000, according to county tax rolls.

Trustees said Tuesday that because the trust is depleted and its only assets are a car purchased for Shasta — one of two — and the French Gulch house, the home must be sold.

Although he received an eviction notice three years ago, which went unanswered according to the trustees, Steve Groene has refused to vacate the property.

When it came his turn to testify Tuesday — after being reprimanded several times by First District Judge Richard Christensen for speaking out of order or veering from court procedures, Groene offered what he called “one thing in my defense.”

He had no witnesses, he said.

“I have a notarized statement from my daughter turning over any interest in the property,” he said.

But attorneys for trustees — the plaintiffs in this case, objected, calling the evidence hearsay because it had not been established as being legitimate.

The judge agreed and Groene became defensive.

“I don’t see how it’s hearsay as it’s signed and notarized,” Groene said. “The fact is that my daughter doesn’t want anything to do with these people, and told me to take it.”

Groene said he could have his daughter in court to testify to the document’s validity.

Because the trial was scheduled for three days, Christensen allowed Groene to have Shasta as a witness, if she is available.

Shasta Groene is on probation after pleading guilty to two counts of injury to a child for leaving methamphetamine close to a 1-year-old.

Steve Groene’s case versus the Shasta Groene Charitable Trust resumes today.