Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students while they slept back in 2022, alleged on Thursday that evidence collected during the police investigation was improperly obtained.
The attorneys are arguing that the information should therefore not hav been presented at trial as they filed suppression briefs that identified specific evidence the attorneys wanted held back from consideration by jurors.
According to the Idaho Statesman, the highly-anticipated filings, which were posted Friday afternoon to the court’s public website, contained over 160 pages that detailed the defense’s legal justification for blocking the evidence.
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Among the lawyers’ claims are that various pieces of evidence related to Kohberger’s genetic information was “illegally gathered by law enforcement” as they cited the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the public against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The police previously alleged that they had found a single piece of male DNA on the leather knife sheath left at the crime scene, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Idaho Statesman. It was that DNA evidence that led the FBI to name Kohberger as the suspect.
Prosecutors later said in court filings that the DNA was directly matched to Kohberger’s through a cheek swab, tying him to the murders. “All information in the affidavit was gathered because of law enforcement’s unconstitutional use of investigative genetic genealogy, and thus nothing in the warrant should remain,” the defense wrote, countering the prosecution as Kohberger’s attorneys submitted the briefs.
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Other pieces of evidence contested in the filings included contents from Kohberger’s Amazon, Google, Apple iCloud and AT&T phone accounts, which his defense attorneys argued violated privacy laws. Evidence obtained from his Pullman, Washington, apartment with a search warrant and from his white Hyundai Elantra were also contested.
Prosecutors now have until Dec. 6 to respond to the filings. A public hearing for oral arguments is reportedly scheduled for Jan. 23, 2025. His capital murder trial is scheduled for next summer in Boise.
Kohberger, who is slated to turn 30 next week, is accused of stabbing to death four University of Idaho undergraduate students at a house in Moscow, home of the college’s campus. The victims were identified as childhood friends Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, and Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur dAlene; their roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, who was Kernodles boyfriend.
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Kohberger had been a doctoral student at the time studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University nearby. His defense stated that he had been out on one of his frequent solo nighttime drives, which took him near a county park in Washington just 30 miles southwest of Moscow.
The violent event took place between 4 and 4:25 a.m. that fateful day in November 2022. Kohberger now faces four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him, which his defense argued against at a hearing last week. The judge has yet to rule on that hearing.
