The legal counsel for Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, filed a motion to move the location of the trial out of Latah County, claiming that the court will be unable to put together an impartial jury.
“A fair and impartial jury cannot be found in Latah County owing to the extensive, inflammatory pretrial publicity, allegations made about Mr. Kohberger to the public by media that will be inadmissible at his trial, the small size of the community, the salacious nature of the alleged crimes, and the severity of the charges Mr. Kohberger face,” public defender Anne Taylor wrote in a court filing on Tuesday that was made available Wednesday evening.
Taylor argued that enlarging the jury pool is not sufficient enough to “overcome that pervasive prejudicial publicity” because Latah County is tight-knit with a population not large enough to “avoid the bias in the community.”
Kohberger’s team requested a hearing on the motion for a change of venue “no sooner than the end of April 2024.”
Prosecutor Bill Thompson also pushed back against the defense’s claim that Latah County would produce a biased jury when they brought up their intention to file the motion on Friday. Thompson argued that the “national, if not international, attention” makes moving the case out of the county a moot point.
“It’s not Moscow, (Idaho),” Thompson said. “It’s not Latah County. It’s everywhere. So, I don’t think that a change of venue is going to solve any of these problems. I have people, friends in this community who have traveled to Mexico. And they say, ‘You’re from Moscow?’ And immediately, they want to talk about this case.”
He said the court owes it to Latah County “the attempt to seat a jury here first.”
District Judge John Judge dismissed the defense’s motion to dismiss Kohberger’s grand jury indictment in late October 2023.
On Friday, Judge heard arguments regarding two separate matters. The first was a request from Kohberger’s team to take their argument about throwing out the indictment to the Idaho Supreme Court. The prosecution argued that allowing the case to go to the state’s high court could delay the trial process even further. Judge agreed and denied the request.
The second dealt with setting a date for the trial. The trial was set to begin on Oct. 2, 2023, but Kohberger decided to waive his right to a speedy trial that August, postponing the trial indefinitely.
Thompson told Judge during Friday’s hearing that a trial start date of summer 2024 would be realistic, arguing it was the best time for the community. The defense disagreed and recommended a trial start date of summer 2025. Kohberger’s lawyers said if they receive all the necessary records, then they could be ready for a start date of March 2025. Judge did not set a trial date, apologizing to the victims’ families.
Kohberger, a 28-year-old Washington State University criminology graduate student, is accused of fatally stabbing Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, on Nov. 13, 2022. He faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary, and prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if he is found guilty.
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Prosecutors allege that Kohberger stabbed the students in the chest and upper body multiple times with a large knife between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Officers zeroed in on Kohberger after a six-week hunt. He was arrested in December 2022 in Pennsylvania, where his parents live.
State and federal law enforcement agencies used evidence found in his car and home to connect Kohberger to the murders, such as a knife sheath. Prosecutors revealed in court documents in June 2023 that DNA found on the knife sheath, which was found near the body of one of the murdered students, was a “statistical match” to Kohberger.