‘Murder,’ ‘psychopath’: Kohberger defense wants to limit phrases, evidence in Idaho trial

A trove of documents released Tuesday reveals requests from prosecutors and the defense for the upcoming trial of Bryan Kohberger, who is accused in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in November 2022.

The requests range from another attempt to scrap the death penalty to identifying specific phrases and language each side wants the other to avoid saying in front of a jury. It’s not clear when 4th District Judge Steven Hippler will rule on the motions. 

The bulk of the motions, which were filed Feb. 24, came from the defense. The state, led by Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, filed a motion to prohibit Kohberger’s lawyers from making reference to the state “attempting to kill” the defendant.

If convicted, Kohberger faces the death penalty, though his attorneys have made numerous attempts to strike that possibility, including a filing in the most recent group of motions that argues Kohberger’s autism diagnosis should exempt him from the death penalty if he is found guilty. 

Kohberger’s team also filed a motion to prevent the state from using his autism diagnosis and any characteristics of autism as aggravating factors in the case. 

And the defense filed motions to keep the state from using terms like “psychopath” or “sociopath” in reference to Kohberger, calling the terms “unfairly prejudicial.” A separate motion asked that prosecutors be banned from referring to Kohberger as a “murderer,” calling the killings “murders” or using other forms of the word. 

“Whether the killings at issue are murder as allegedly committed by Bryan Kohberger, or by an alternate suspect or someone still unknown is the ultimate issue,” the motion stated. 

In Idaho and many other places, the legal definition of murder differs from other terms, such as homicide. It typically means to kill with malice or foresight. 

Kohberger’s attorneys said using terms like “murderer” and “murder weapon” during trial would color a jury’s opinion and understanding of the facts. 

The defense filed another motion that broadly asks to prevent the state from using “inflammatory evidence.” The filing said there are more than 68 terabytes of data in the case, including hours of police body-camera footage, repeated photographs and “hundreds of photographs of autopsy proceedings.” 

“Mr. Kohberger acknowledges the Idaho Supreme Court has held that a photograph cannot be excluded merely on the basis of being gruesome,” the filing said. “However, Mr. Kohberger is not making that motion; rather he is requesting the state be prevented from introducing inflammatory evidence.”

The trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection in late July. 

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of U of I students 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. All of the killings took place at an off-campus home in Moscow in November 2022. 

Kohberger, at the time, was a Ph.D. candidate at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Wash., about 9 miles west of Moscow, just across the Idaho state line.