The highly-anticipated trial of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, has been set for June 2025 and is expected to last for three months. The 29-year-old criminology PhD student returned to court for a scheduling hearing on Thursday where Latah County Judge John Judge proposed the summer date. Both the prosecution and the defense agreed that it’s reasonable to set the trial during the summer when school is on break because of the proximity of Latah County Courthouse to the local schools.
However, Kohberger’s defense attorney Anne Taylor reminded the court that they object to the trial being held in Latah County and said they plan to submit a motion to change the venue. Taylor has previously said that she does not believe that Kohberger would get a fair trial in Latah County. The attorneys also discussed deadlines for submitting evidence that would be used in the sentencing phase if Kohberger is found guilty. Latah County prosecutors said a year ago that they intend to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.
Kohberger is charged with the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, who were stabbed to death on November 13, 2022, in Moscow, Idaho. Police linked Kohberger to the murders that rocked the college town through DNA found on a knife sheath, cell phone data, an eyewitness account, and his white Hyundai Elantra. He was arrested six weeks after the murders.
In May 2023, Kohberger declined to enter a plea prompting Judge to enter his plea as not guilty on his behalf. Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were killed in 2022. Last month, the defense argued that prosecutors had not handed all the evidence over for them to review and have filed multiple motions to compel the state to do so. Prosecutors insisted they are doing all they can to share evidence but have been partly delayed by federal rules, due to the FBI’s involvement in the investigation.
This evidence in question is said to include dashcam footage, video and audio recordings of a white sedan close to the crime scene in Moscow, as well as lab testing results – information police used to arrest Kohberger. But Kohberger claims to have an alibi for the time of the murders: that he was driving around looking at stars and was in Pullman, which is about eight miles west of the off-campus student home at 1122 King Road home, where the slayings unfolded.
Earlier this year, Kohberger’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the murder charges against him, citing a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence and prosecutorial misconduct. But Judge denied the motion.
The prosecution and defense are working toward a June 2025 trial date for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in an off-campus house. Judge John Judge said he anticipates the trial to take three months. The defense still wants a change of venue, which has not yet been determined.
The parents of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves attended Thursday’s court hearing. The Goncalves had been desperate for a date to be set, telling ABC News in January their family is “in limbo” until trial begins. “We got to get this case over,” Steve Goncalves said. “Let’s do it. Let’s stop playing these delay tactics, let’s just get it done.”
Roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, were stabbed to death in the girls’ off-campus home in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Two other roommates survived.
There is a Bryan Kohberger update: The suspect in the Moscow, Idaho college murders is scheduled for arraignment Monday. Kohberger, who was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the gruesome crime, was arrested weeks later in Pennsylvania. A not guilty plea was entered on Kohberger’s behalf for four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
The prosecution and defense have gone back-and-forth proposing potential trial dates at hearings this year. On Jan. 26, the prosecution told the judge it was ready to go to trial in summer 2024. Prosecutors said summer is best because there will be out-of-state witnesses who need accommodations in Moscow, which they said is difficult while local schools are in session. The defense argued a summer 2024 trial is not realistic for this complex case. The defense said it still had a lot of digital evidence to go through, more potential witnesses to speak with and more documents to collect from Kohberger’s past and his family.
The prosecution agreed that there was a large amount of information to sift through. The defense recommended a summer 2025 trial if the case moved forward in Latah County, but days after the Jan. 26 hearing, Kohberger’s defense filed a motion for a change of venue. The prosecution said the case has national and international interest, so a change of venue would not solve any problem. At a Feb. 28 hearing, the judge and prosecution proposed a trial date of March 3, 2025, while the defense asked for a June 2025 trial. The next hearing to discuss a change of venue will be Aug. 29.
The murder trial of University of Idaho student killings suspect Bryan Kohberger – initially slated to begin in October – has been delayed. Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial during a status conference Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty for Kohberger, who is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the November 13 killings of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were brutally stabbed in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger, who has had a not guilty plea entered on his behalf, repeatedly confirmed to the judge Wednesday that he wishes to waive his right to a trial within six months of his arraignment in May. Kohberger’s attorney, Anne Taylor, said the defense team could not be prepared to effectively present their case on the previously set trial date of October 2 – now less than six weeks away. Prosecutors did not object and Judge John Judge agreed to vacate the October trial date. The judge did not set a new trial date at the request of Taylor, who said the defense was not prepared to do so. Taylor said the defense is prepared to challenge the grand jury indictment against Kohberger at an upcoming hearing on September 1.
Judge previously ruled that Kohberger’s defense has until September 8 to submit witnesses and other evidence for the accused killer’s alibi if his attorneys choose to use his alibi as a defense. Prosecutors have argued Kohberger must provide his exact whereabouts the night of the killings and any witnesses who can support the his claim that he was out for a drive alone that night.
“Mr. Kohberger has a long habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022. Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time,” the defense has argued. Investigators homed in on Kohberger after learning he was the registered owner of a white Hyundai Elantra similar to one seen in surveillance footage near the crime scene on the night of the killings, according to a probable cause affidavit released in January. His appearance is also consistent with a description given by a surviving roommate, who noted characteristics such as height, weight and bushy eyebrows, according to the affidavit.
Kohberger’s phone records also showed he had been near the victims’ home at least a dozen times since last June and had also been near the site of the killings hours later, between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m., the document says. Additionally, Kohberger’s DNA was a “statistical match” to DNA collected from the sheath of a knife found at the crime scene, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.
The trial had been set to start Oct. 2. The capital murder trial for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four Idaho college students last fall, will be delayed indefinitely. Kohberger’s trial had been set to begin Oct. 2 — less than six weeks away — but will now be postponed after he waived his right to a speedy trial Wednesday afternoon in court. The judge accepted his waiver. Kohberger defense attorney Anne Taylor said more time was needed to effectively present their case than would be possible by Oct. 2.
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing, on Aug. 18, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger’s defense said they still wanted to keep the upcoming Sept. 1 hearing date to address their request to dismiss the indictment – and after that, reconvene to discuss a new schedule reset. The decision to delay the trial had been anticipated for weeks, ever since prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty against Kohberger.
In court on Wednesday, Judge John Judge directly confirmed with Kohberger that no one had pressured him in this decision to waive his right to a speedy trial, and that this was what he wanted to do — which Kohberger affirmed. Idaho law requires that defendants receive a trial date within six months of their arraignment if they don’t waive that right. Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed to death four University of Idaho students: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as a suspect, saying they tracked his white Hyundai Elantra and cell phone signal data, and recovered what authorities said was his DNA on a knife sheath found next to one of the victims’ bodies. Kohberger was indicted in May and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf. If convicted, Kohberger could face the death penalty.
Goncalves’ family responded to the developments on Wednesday, saying in a statement: “Upon the Court finally putting hard deadlines in place the Family suspected that the Defendant would waive his speedy trial rights. This case carries enormous weight for the families and the community and this additional time allows both sides to be fully prepared for the next trial date.”
Source: ABC News, CNN
