© Coeur d’Alene Police DepartmentElden Samuel
The father of Coeur d'Alene teenager Eldon Samuel III showed the boy how to use weapons from a young age and also trained him to prepare for a "zombie apocalypse," Samuel's mother said in court Wednesday.
Samuel's public defender asked Tina Samuel to explain what her husband trained her son to do to zombies. "To shoot them in the head and chop off their head," she testified. "That's the only way to kill a zombie."Eldon Samuel, 16, is on trial for murder in the March 2014 killing of his father and his 13-year-old brother. The Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney's office concluded its case Tuesday, and lawyers for Samuel began calling their witnesses from a list of more than 200 names.
Tina Samuel spoke of her relationship with the boy's father, Eldon Samuel Jr., as well as his habits and demeanor when the family lived together in the Modesto, California, area. She said JR, as she called her husband, was high on prescription medication much of the time, and she admitted she was as well, "off and on."
JR also often played violent video games, she said. "It would be zombie video games - just killing zombies," she said. He also played "Call of Duty," a first-person shooter game, she recalled. JR began playing these games with his son Eldon when the boy was as young as 4 or 5, Tina Samuel said.The family moved frequently, usually because of eviction. "JR wouldn't pay the rent and bills," she said. JR worked part of the time as a mechanic and had injured himself at work a couple of times. He began taking medication for a shoulder injury and never stopped, she said.
"He was moody. He was high a lot, controlling, physically and mentally abusive," Tina Samuel testified, adding that the behavior grew worse over time. JR owned a 9 mm handgun, which he kept tucked in the back of his waistband, she said. The family sometimes went camping in a trailer in secluded spots high in the California mountains, she testified. JR would bring guns and knives on those trips and show his boys how to use the weapons, including cutting the head and tail off a rattlesnake, she said.
Comment: The only thing left out of the fine article above, is that many of the attitudes held by the individuals the author is discussing are quite likely psychopaths.