Bryan Kohberger: Idaho murder suspect wants trial moved to another region

CNN
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A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to determine whether the trial of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022, will be moved outside of Latah County. His attorneys say that location does not allow for the selection of an independent jury for the long-awaited trial.

The hearing is the latest update in a grueling two-year legal battle to get Kohberger’s case before a jury, which has seen numerous preliminary hearings and complaints of inertia from the victims’ families. The trial, at which Kohberger could face the death penalty, is currently scheduled for June 2025.

Kohberger has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.

Attorneys for Kohberger, 29, argued in a court filing that the trial should be moved out of Latah County because of a “mob mentality” that threatened the safety of their client and the courthouse. They hope to move the trial more than 300 miles away to Ada County, home to Boise, the state’s capital and largest city.

“The traumatized city of Moscow is understandably filled with deep-seated, preconceived notions of guilt,” the defense wrote.

The defense argues that anonymous residents of Latah County, where the killings took place, told defense experts in telephone surveys that if Kohberger is not convicted:

• “They would burn down the courthouse. Outrage would be a mild description.”

• “They would probably find him and kill him.”

• “There would probably be a riot and he wouldn’t last long outside because someone would do the good old boy justice.”

His defense argued that the prosecution recognizes that there is “a huge problem with the venue of the trial” and that Kohberger “has a constitutional right to a fair trial with an impartial jury.”

Media attention for the case in Latah County is the highest in the state and reporting “is often inaccurate and inflammatory,” the defense filing said.

According to his lawyers, the investigation found that the more media accounts a potential juror knows, the greater the chance of a guilty verdict.

The defense’s argument is based on a survey conducted by defense expert Bryan Edelman of the consulting firm Trial Innovations in four Idaho counties, including Latah, where the Moscow killings took place, and Ada County.

Edelman surveyed 400 Latah County residents about their knowledge and biases about the case. Truescope, a media monitoring firm, also looked at media coverage available to residents of Moscow and Boise, but could not determine how much untraceable media reached Idahoans in those cities via YouTube, TikTok, Facebook or podcasts.

The filing noted that respondents in Latah County said there would be outrage in the community if Kohberger were not convicted, while respondents in Ada County said community members would “go on with their lives as usual” and “take it well.”

The defense also argued that Moscow lacks the facilities to accommodate a highly publicized, three-month trial, and pointed to the shifting of venues to Ada County in high-profile cases such as the murder trials of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell. Vallow was sentenced to life in prison and her husband, Daybell, to death for the murders of Vallow’s two children and Daybell’s first wife.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, have argued that a fair and impartial trial could be held in Moscow, and that the intense media coverage of the case extends beyond Latah County. They criticized the study’s findings, arguing that they show that “Latah County residents who have heard about the case are statistically less likely to hold a biased verdict on the defendant overall.” In addition, other strategies could be used to ensure a fair and impartial trial, such as convening a large jury pool and thoroughly screening them, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors say moving the trial hundreds of miles away would be inconvenient for both witnesses and the victims’ families.

The case stems from the killings that occurred on the morning of Sunday, November 13, 2022. Police in Moscow, Idaho, were called to a home near the University of Idaho and found the bodies of four students: Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Ethan Chapin, 20; and Xana Kernodle, 20. All four had been stabbed to death.

The killings – and the subsequent manhunt for a suspect – sent shockwaves through the small university town of Moscow, raising fears for the safety of students and leading to attacks.

Kohberger, then a student in Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, was arrested at his parents’ home in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on December 30, just over a month after the murders.

Law enforcement focused on Kohberger in part by linking him to a white Hyundai Elantra seen in the immediate area of ​​the killings. His DNA also matched DNA found on a brown leather knife sheath found “lying on the bed” of one of the victims, court documents said.