Murder case's final phase starts

COEUR d’ALENE — Jonathan D. Renfro was a good kid, high strung, with a propensity to make others laugh.

But he couldn’t learn, he couldn’t concentrate or focus and it resulted in his being held back when the family in 2004 moved to Idaho. The transition from his old school in Paso Robles, Calif., where he was part of a an extended school family, to Rathdrum was difficult for the teen who was taken from high school and placed back into a junior high classroom.

The event coincided with the start of his criminal history.

That was one of the characterizations offered by witnesses Monday in the final phase of the Renfro’s murder trial in Coeur d’Alene.

Convicted 10 days ago in First District Court for first degree murder in the killing of Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore , Renfro, through his defense team, is attempting to show the jury in the final phase that he shouldn’t be put to death for killing Moore.

Caleb Cole, a sixth-grade teacher at the school Renfro attended in California remembers the defendant as someone whose main purpose was to make others bust a gut.

Cole was Renfro’s case manager in the school’s special education program. He described the defendant as being wound up all the time. Dealing with his hyperactivity was a challenge.

“I would say J.D. wasn’t typical,” Cole said. “He had a really high amount of it.”

He was disruptive, but not in a defiant way, Cole said.

“Farting in class to make everyone laugh,” Cole said. “Not raising his hand, just blurting out.”

Renfro’s mom, Carol, identified family photos in a slideshow of a young J.D. on his dad’s Harley, in a Little League uniform, wearing the white gi of a karate student and the smiling boy during family vacations.

“We took vacations every year,” Carol Renfro said.

He was a cub scout, played in the band, wrestled, and was a heavy hitter on his football team.

He was a happy-go-lucky kid.

Their home in a middle class neighborhood was a kind and caring environment. Two other siblings were raised in the household alongside J.D., who was the youngest, to become well-adjusted professionals. Mom and dad worked, and — given dad’s military background and the couple’s many friends in the police department — the three Renfro children including J.D.’s older brother and sister, were taught to honor people in public service.

“Respect for the uniform,” Carol Renfro said.

Other factors may have intensified Renfro’s ADHD, according to witnesses. A young J.D. suffered a head injury playing Peewee football.

His coaches were concerned with the boy’s disregard for personal injury or injuring others, according to testimony.

“He didn’t mind hitting hard, he didn’t mind getting hit,” clinical neuropsychologist Craig Beaver, an expert witness for the defense, said. “He played with gusto.”

As a teenager in Idaho, Renfro fell from the back of a pickup truck and landed on his head, Beaver related. The injuries, compounded, may have intensified the defendant’s impulsiveness, his myopia, his inability to consider the consequences of his actions.

“Getting your bell rung at a young age can cause problems with people,” Beaver said.

Renfro was a heavy drinker for his age, according to testimony and his alcohol addiction that began in junior high compounded his behavioral issues, his inability to make responsible decisions.

But prosecutors picked apart witnesses and their testimony starting with Renfro’s mother.

Deputy prosecutor Jed Whitaker eroded the notion that the Renfro home was a good foundation for the defendant. Every time he got into trouble, Renfro was accepted back into the home, even after returning from prison for grand theft and for assaulting a correctional officer, Whittaker pointed out. The environment, where excuses were made for the defendant’s criminal activity enabled the defendant, Whitaker pointed out.

“You gave him love, and you took him back in,” Whitaker said. “When he was implicated for stealing a firearm from a house … you believed him and took him back in.”

He stole a pickup truck, Whitaker said.

“And you took him back in.”

He stole a motorcycle.

“He had a black mask on him.”

Regardless of the crime, Whitaker said, “You keep bringing him back in because your house has a lot of love in it.”

After he was released from the juvenile correction facility in Lewiston Renfro returned home and Carol Renfro gave her son advice.

“I told him he needed to pick better friends,” she said.

Following Beaver’s lengthy testimony, deputy prosecutor David Robins ran through the results of psychological tests — more than a dozen- used to regularly evaluate the defendant since his incarceration. None of the results showed abnormalities

“All these tests came back normal?” Robins asked.

“Yes,” Beaver replied.

The tests showed Renfro as someone with a higher than average IQ .

“He started out with good intellectual horsepower, but he has limitations staying focused, anticipating consequences, managing his behavior,” Beaver said. “We see this in terms of how J.D.’s life has gone.”

The trial’s final phase, in which the jury is presented with evidence, and arguments to decide if mitigating circumstances influenced Moore’s fatal shooting is expected to last two weeks.

If the testimony doesn’t convince jurors that underlying reasons may have resulted in the homicide, a death sentence for Renfro may be imminent.

The trial resumes today at 9 a.m.