Feds File 1st Charge Against Duncan

BOISE, Idaho -- Federal prosecutors have filed their first charge against convicted murderer Joseph Duncan III, but it's not for abducting two north Idaho children and killing one of them.

Duncan was charged with illegally driving a stolen Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo across state lines. Federal investigators say he rented the car in Minnesota and was still driving it when he was arrested in 2005 at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant, sharing a meal with Shasta Groene, 8 years old at the time.

The charge filed Saturday is a placeholder to make sure he is not extradited to another state before he is tried for the kidnapping of Shasta and the abduction and slaying of her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Jean McNeil said Tuesday.

A grand jury is expected to hear the case, including the possible upcoming charges, in the next few weeks, McNeil said.

Duncan is also considered the prime suspect in the slayings of two children near Seattle and one in Southern California in the 1990s.

Duncan pleaded guilty last year in state court to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping for the bludgeoning deaths of the children's mother, her fiance and her 13-year-old son. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on the kidnapping charges.

The sentence on the murder counts was deferred; federal prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

Prosecutors had rejected an earlier plea agreement in which Duncan offered to plead guilty to the state charges _ plus other crimes for which he had not yet been charged _ in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.