Jan 26, 2009 8:28 pm US/Pacific
Duncan Pleads Not Guilty To Murdering Beaumont Boy
INDIO, Calif. (AP) ―
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Joseph Duncan III was sentenced to death in August by a federal court 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.
A man convicted of a deadly attack on an Idaho family has been arraigned on a separate charge of murdering a 10-year old California boy in 1997.
A Riverside County district attorney's office spokesman said a not guilty plea was entered on Monday for Joseph Edward Duncan III by Judge David B. Downing.
Duncan was brought to California on Friday from death row in Indiana to face the charge of killing 10-year old Anthony Martinez.
Prosecutors allege Duncan left a fingerprint on the duct tape that was used to bind Anthony, who was abducted by a knife-wielding assailant while playing with friends in an alley behind his family's Beaumont apartment on April 4, 1997.
Martinez was found April 19, 1997, on Berdoo Canyon Road, south of Joshua Tree National Monument, in Indio -- 90 miles east of where he was taken two weeks earlier.
Duncan was charged with the boy's murder in 2007.
District Attorney Rod Pacheco has said he is confident Duncan will be convicted of murder, saying there is forensic evidence and witness testimony from Riverside County, as well as evidence in Idaho that links him to the slaying.
Duncan was sentenced to death last August by a federal judge in Boise, Idaho, for murdering 9-year-old Dylan Groene.
In May 2005, Duncan killed the child's brother, mother and her fiance and kidnapped Dylan and his 8-year-old sister. He tortured and sexually abused the siblings over several weeks before shooting the boy in the head while his sister watched.
He faces multiple life sentences for the latter three killings.
Duncan was arrested after a waitress at a Denny's restaurant recognized him and the kidnapped younger sister. Law enforcement agencies nationwide have since been investigating whether the drifter and high school dropout, whose first sex offense was committed when he was 12 years old, could be tied to other cases.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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