Judge in Bryan Kohberger’s Idaho student murder case issues evidence challenge decisions

A DNA technique that prosecutors said first identified Bryan Kohberger as the suspect in the University of Idaho student homicides case did not jeopardize the investigation, and its use by the FBI does not justify suppressing any evidence collected after that, the judge in the high-profile murder trial ruled Wednesday.

In addition, the defense’s assertion that investigators lied or withheld information from a prior judge to obtain search warrants was unfounded and does not support holding a separate hearing to challenge that evidence, 4th District Judge Steven Hippler wrote in his long-awaited court filings.

His rulings, in four opinions, represent the biggest decisions from the Ada County judge since taking over the case late last year.

Hippler’s decisions, which represent a clean sweep for prosecutors, followed a pair of hearings held late last month over the defense’s efforts to exclude a variety of evidence from Kohberger’s case. The closely watched trial is scheduled for this summer, starting with jury selection July 30.

Kohberger, 30, a former Washington State University graduate student of criminal justice and criminology, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and a count of felony burglary in the stabbing of four students in Moscow. He could face the death penalty if convicted by a jury. 

The four victims were Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Wash. The three women lived in an off-campus home on King Road with two other women who went physically unharmed in the early morning attack, while Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over for the night.