Bryan Kohberger’s attorneys challenge array of evidence in Moscow murder case
Bryan Kohberger, left, is charged with killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022. Led by attorney Anne Taylor, his defense wants several pieces of state evidence withheld from his murder trial next summer. August Frank Lewiston Tribune / Pool
Attorneys for the man charged with killing four Idaho college students in Moscow followed through on their pledge to challenge evidence they assert was improperly obtained by police to prevent its use at trial.
Bryan Kohberger’s defense met a court-imposed deadline Thursday to file suppression briefs that identified specific evidence the attorneys want held back from jurors’ consideration. The much anticipated filings, which posted Friday afternoon to a public court’s website, totaled more than 160 pages and include the legal justification for blocking a variety of evidence.
Among the pieces of evidence Kohberger’s attorneys argued should be dropped is their client’s genetic information that they alleged was “illegally gathered by law enforcement,” citing the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The filings were submitted under seal, based on a judge’s prior order to seal anything related to the FBI’s use of investigative genetic genealogy, or IGG, to first arrive at Kohberger as the suspect.
Police have said they found a single source of male DNA on a leather knife sheath left at the crime scene, according to the probable cause affidavit. Prosecutors later said in court filings that the DNA was later directly matched to Kohberger through a cheek swab, which tied him to the November 2022 quadruple homicide.
Among other evidence Kohberger’s defense is challenging include: the contents of Kohberger’s Amazon, Google, Apple iCloud and AT&T phone accounts, citing privacy law violations; any evidence obtained from his apartment in Pullman, Washington, with a search warrant; and all evidence from Kohberger’s white Hyundai Elantra through a search warrant.
Prosecutors have until Dec. 6 to respond to the defense’s evidence suppression filings. A public hearing for oral arguments on the issue is scheduled for Jan. 23.
Kohberger, who turns 30 years old next week, is accused of the early morning stabbing deaths of the four University of Idaho undergraduates at a house near the college campus in Moscow. The victims were childhood friends Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, and Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene; their roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, who was Kernodle’s boyfriend.
At the time, Kohberger was a doctoral student in criminal justice and criminology at nearby Washington State University in Pullman just over the Idaho-Washington border. In alibi filings, his defense has said that Kohberger was out for one of his frequent solo nighttime drives, including near a county park in Washington some 30 miles southwest of Moscow, when police reported the violent incident took place between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.
Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and a count of felony burglary in the case. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if a jury finds him guilty. His defense has argued for striking a possible death sentence and awaits the judge’s decision. Kohberger’s capital murder trial is scheduled for next summer in Boise.