Duncan Plea Bargain Hearing Delayed One Week

A condemned child killer could accept a plea bargain on March 15 that would spare him a death sentence for killing a Beaumont boy in 1997.

Joseph Edward Duncan III, 47, has already been sentenced to death for the slaying of an Idaho boy and three other members of his family, is facing the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping and murdering 10-year-old Anthony Martinez.

Two weeks ago, his defense team proposed a deal to prosecutors that would allow Duncan to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of parole, Deputy District Attorney Otis Sterling said.

One of Duncan’s two court-appointed attorneys, Scott O’Meara, confirmed that an offer was presented, but declined to elaborate.

Duncan, who is also facing nine life sentences for murders and other felonies, appeardf at the Larson Justice Center on Monday, where the court was informed District Attorney Paul Zellerbach is mulling over the agreement.

“We need to decide if we’re willing to allow him to (plead),” Sterling said. “I will present that to the D.A., who will make that decision. It is Zellerbach’s call.”

Sterling did not return calls last week to comment about the meeting.

Should the prosecution continue seeking the death penalty, Duncan would be tried between April 5 and April 15 unless he asks for a delay.

Martinez’s mother, Diana Gonzales, said she would be fine if the prosecution accepted the deal.

“We’re really emotionally tired, it’s been a long almost 14 years,” she told KESQ. “It’s been a long, long journey. I’m ready for it to be over.”

Duncan, when representing himself last year, did not deny the allegations against him, but was not allowed to plead guilty, because state law requires a defendant in such cases to have a lawyer first.

“While he was self-represented that wasn’t a possibility,” Sterling said. “He recently has gotten lawyers, and it’s at a point where they extended an offer to us. So we’ll talk about it and see what we want to do.”

Duncan has a troubled history with lawyers, having previously fired court-appointed lawyers to represent himself, so it is unclear whether he will even go along with his attorneys’ own offer today.

A judge found Duncan competent to stand trial and represent himself in 2009.

Duncan was tied to the Coachella Valley slaying when Anthony’s name surfaced during questioning in Idaho. Partial fingerprints found at the scene where the boy’s body was discovered matched Duncan, authorities have said.

Duncan allegedly left a fingerprint on the duct tape used to bind Anthony, who was abducted by a stranger as he played with friends in an alley behind his family’s apartment on April 4, 1997.

The child’s nude body was found by a Bureau of Land Management ranger on April 19, 1997, on Berdoo Canyon Road in Indio — some 90 miles east of where he was snatched — south of Joshua Tree National Monument.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office charged Duncan with Anthony’s murder in 2007.

Duncan was sentenced to death in August 2008 by a federal judge in Boise, Idaho, for murdering 9-year-old Dylan Groene. Duncan kidnapped the boy and his 8-year-old sister in May 2005, then tortured and sexually abused both of them over the course of several weeks before shooting Dylan in the head while his sister watched.

Duncan also killed the children’s brother and mother, and the mother’s fiance.

Duncan was arrested after a waitress at a Denny’s restaurant recognized him and the kidnapped younger sister.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide began investigating whether the drifter and high school dropout, whose first sex offense was committed when he was 12, could be tied to other cases.