Hearing set for son of Del. courthouse shooter

A federal judge is to decide Friday whether international kidnapper David Matusiewicz should be sent back to prison - but she could make that decision without even mentioning the shootout that left his ex-wife, her friend, and his father dead.

Thomas Matusiewicz opened fire Monday in the New Castle County Courthouse, killing Christine Belford and her friend Laura Mulford and injuring two Capitol Police officers before taking his own life, according to Delaware State Police.

State police have not filed charges, but in a search warrant served Tuesday, investigators listed David Matusiewicz and his mother, Lenore, as willing accomplices in the slayings.

In the family's house and a storage locker in Hidalgo County, Texas, police found 13 guns; hundreds of rounds of ammunition stashed in boxes, jars, and plastic bags; court papers; and books titled Kill All the Lawyers and New I.D. in America, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The weapons were checked against federal and state databases and came back clear, according to the AP.

In November 2011, Lenore and Thomas Matusiewicz reported in bankruptcy filings that they owned only one firearm - a 9mm Glock.

Lenore Matusiewicz, who in 2007 helped her son kidnap his three daughters, defended her family in an interview Wednesday with 6ABC. She denied that she and her son knew what her husband was going to do.

"I wish I had known. Maybe I could have done something to stop it," she said, crying. "I would have stepped in front of the gun; I didn't want anybody dead."

The search warrant cites surveillance footage that shows father and son hugging in the courthouse lobby before the shooting. David Matusiewicz then goes through security into the courthouse, while Thomas Matusiewicz waits in the lobby for 35 minutes until Belford arrives, police said.

Lenore Matusiewicz told 6ABC that her husband and son were affectionate and hugged often. She also said her husband suffered from a brain tumor "in the area [that] controls reasoning, memory, judgment, decision-making - all of the higher functions. And it changed him."

According to the search warrant, Lenore Matusiewicz told police that she, her husband, and their son had left Texas on Feb. 4 to drive to Delaware for a child-support hearing with Belford.

David Matusiewicz had obtained permission from his parole officer to make the trip. But instead of staying with an uncle in Bayville, N.J., as planned, he spent Sunday night in Elkton, Md., without telling the parole officer.

That discrepancy - along with his failure to pay restitution and child support - are the subjects of Friday's hearing. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said it was possible that additional violations could arise. For example, Matusiewicz was not allowed to possess firearms. If he lived in the home with his parents' guns, or traveled in the car with the .45-caliber handgun his father used in the shooting, that could be a parole violation, said U.S. attorney spokeswoman Kim Reeves.

David Matusiewicz was sentenced to four years in prison and five years' supervised release after pleading guilty to international kidnapping and bank fraud. Lenore Matusiewicz was sentenced to 18 months for aiding in the kidnapping.

The two rented a motor home and took the children across Central America for 19 months before they were found. When they returned, Christine Belford sued the family for emotional distress and personal injury. The children - age 5, 4, and 2 at the time of the kidnapping - were traumatized by the ordeal, according to court records.

In various court filings, Thomas and Lenore Matusiewicz accused Belford of abusing the children and expressed frustration with a perceived lack of justice in the courts.