Just over a mile from the scene of a triple stabbing that remains unsolved and claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students early on a November Saturday, police made an ex-con killing arrest this week.
According to court records, James Leonard, 39, of Moscow, Idaho, is accused of beating his wife and her kid late on Tuesday night before slashing himself with a knife. According to police, his Wednesday arrest had nothing to do with the adjacent home invasion homicides on November 13.
According to court records, he previously admitted responsibility to a fatal shooting that occurred in 2007, although he hardly received any prison time.
“Dispatch advised an intoxicated husband punched his wife in the head and struck his daughter,” according to a criminal complaint on the latest charges
According to court filings, when police arrived at their Palouse River Drive house, they discovered Leonard’s wife bleeding from the lips and nose. When police forced Leonard to leave his hiding place in a bedroom, they discovered blood on his hands, face, and large cut on his forearm.
According to the complaint, an officer frisked him and discovered two blades and a joint of marijuana. His wife informed police that he had had “half a bottle of gin” and was very drunk. After working on his truck outside, he allegedly saw her on the phone and charged her with infidelity. He allegedly yelled at her in front of her two children, who are 21 and 20 years old.
The complaint states that after that, he entered his room and began cutting himself.
He allegedly punched his wife in the face and grabbed her throat when she went to check on him. The older daughter, her boyfriend, and the infant left the altercation and went to a neighbor’s home. However, Leonard is also accused of kicking and punching the 15-year-old at one time as well as yanking her hair and throwing her into a dresser. She was later discovered by police in another room, hiding under a chair, with concussion-like symptoms.
The incident involved the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were all found dead 1.3 miles away from the next crossroads. On Nov. 13, at noon, police discovered all four bodies at a residence a few yards from the university.
Strangely, Leonard’s defense lawyer is also the county coroner, who declared that all four college students were killed by stabbing and that their wounds were probably sustained while they slept.
Cathy Mabbutt, the Latah County Coroner, is a nurse and an attorney who was elected to office in 2006, just before Leonard’s murder case.
On Thursday, she opted not to remark on the situation.