ADA COUNTY, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, faced a judge Thursday morning for his final pre-trial hearing.
His trial is about three months away.
During Thursday’s hearing, Judge Steven Hippler broke down the trial process in stages, discussing how the jury will be selected, the trial’s schedule, and who will be seated in the courtroom.
Kohberger was present, sitting between his attorneys wearing a white dress shirt, a dark tie, and was clean-shaven.
Judge Hippler told Kohberger’s defense team that he would like to get back from them a declaration of the last best offer by the end of June or early July. He was referring to a possible plea deal from prosecutors. It’s unclear whether they’ve offered him one.
The jury
Jury selection is set to begin in July. Judge Hippler said he wants a pool of approximately 50 final jurors. From that pool, 12 will be selected to sit on the jury – along with eight alternates.
The trial will run Monday through Friday, beginning at 8:45 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m.
If the jury needs to be sequestered, Judge Hippler said he would likely extend those hours. He noted there is a good chance they’ll need to be sequestered once they begin deliberations.
Seating
Judge Hippler said there would be reserved seats for Kohberger’s and the defendant’s families.
He also noted that there will be reserved seats for the two surviving roommates.
“I don’t know whether they would have any desire to be here,” he said. “I suspect not, given the way they’ve been treated in the media, but if they do that, they would have seats available.”
Remaining seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be seating in an additional room within the courthouse where it will be streamed.
The trial
The trial is scheduled to begin on August 11. Judge Hippler said there’s a chance it could last through the end of October or into early November.
The accusations
Kohberger is accused of stabbing to death four University of Idaho students in an off-campus home in November of 2022:
- Madison Mogen
- Kaylee Goncalves
- Xana Kernodle
- Ethan Chapin
Two roommates survived and called 911 the next morning after discovering that something terrible had happened to the others.
The plea
A judge entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf in May 2023.
The defense
The defense maintains that Kohberger is innocent.
“Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars,” Taylor wrote. “He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park,” his team argued in a filing from April.
That same filing also detailed that the defense intends to offer the testimony of an expert in cellphone and cell tower data to support the notion that Kohberger did not travel east along the main road connecting Pullman and Moscow that night.
His team has filed numerous other documents with the court since Kohberger was arrested.
Last year, they successfully got the trial moved out of Latah County – where the University of Idaho presides –stating it would be difficult to find a fair and balanced jury given how close-knit the community is and the extensive media coverage of the case. The case is now being tried of out Ada County, which is just shy of six hours away.
In February, attorneys for Kohberger filed documents alleging that he has an autism spectrum disorder in an effort to get the death penalty off the table if he’s convicted. A judge ruled against that. The defense may still point to the disorder to explain his lack of emotions. The judge did leave the door open for future consideration of Kohberger’s obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) diagnosis, if it becomes relevant, such as in discussions of his reported sleep difficulties and nighttime driving habits.
The defense has also tried to get DNA evidence and digital records thrown out, arguing that search warrants were tainted by police misconduct. According to court documents, Kohberger’s defense argued that his rights were violated when DNA was taken from the crime scene and then analyzed using investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). Judge Hippler denied the request. He wrote that there is “no reasonable expectation of privacy in identity,” and his team “did not prove that his DNA was tested for anything other than identifying purposes.”
In September 2024, his attorneys filed a motion asking for him to wear street clothes to court—stating that appearing before the jury in jail clothing would impact his presumption of innocence. Judge Hippler allowed him to wear civilian clothing for the next hearing and stated that future decisions on attire would be made before each hearing, based on security concerns.
The prosecution
If he is found guilty, the prosecution has said they plan to push for the death penalty.
The prosecution has made it clear they plan to use everything from DNA to cell phone data, and at least one witness, in their case against Kohberger.
In March, the prosecution filed court documents stating they will use evidence of an apparent knife purchase and a selfie that they believe links Kohberger to the crime scene. They state his Amazon shopping history shows that he purchased a Ka-Bar knife, sheath, and sharpener in March 2022, just eight months before the murders. A Ka-Bar sheath was found in the bed of one of the victims. According to investigators, the DNA found on that sheath is a “statistical match” to Kohberger’s DNA.
Police say that Kohberger’s phone pinged near the victims’ home over a dozen times before the murders. In February, Judge Hippler has granted that Kohberger’s phone data be allowed during the trial.
In April, a judge ruled that a surviving roommate will be allowed to testify about seeing an intruder with “bushy eyebrows” the night of the killings – despite objections from the defense. According to court documents, the surviving roommate told police she saw a masked person dressed in black inside the house shortly before 4:19 a.m. on the day of the attack. She reported being intoxicated at the time and could not recall many details about the intruder’s face—but noted the person’s “bushy eyebrows” stood out in her memory.
Another court filing also shows that the prosecution has asked to use a college paper written by Kohberger on crime scenes as evidence in his murder trial. At the time of the murders, he was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, which is about a 20-minute drive away.
KIRO 7 will continue to closely monitor any updates in this case as they are made public.
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