The man accused of killing four college students in a break-in to their home near the University of Idaho has refused to plead guilty. Second, the decision to “shut up” in the first step of a lengthy legal process.
Judge John C. Judge said he would issue a statement of innocence to defendant Bryan Kohberger, after Mr. Kohberger’s attorney, Anne Taylor, said her client had decided not to make any pleas. any during this period. Previously, Mr. Kohberger had said through a lawyer that he wished to be cleared.
A trial will begin in October in Moscow, the quiet university town of Idaho that had not recorded a single murder in seven years before four students were killed on November 13.
Investigators said in court records that they linked Mr. Kohberger to the murders with the help of DNA found on knife sheaths at the crime scene, as well as through surveillance video showing a vehicle similar to his own. We were close to home around the time of the murder.
At the time, Kohberger was studying for a doctorate in criminology at Washington State University, a few miles across the state border from the University of Idaho campus. Prosecutors have not revealed any prior connections between him and any of the four victims – Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21 years old; Xana Kernodle, 20 years old; and Ethan Chapin, 20.
In the hours before the murder, Ms. Mogen and Ms. Goncalves were out at a bar, and they stopped at a food truck before returning home. Miss Kernodle and Mr Chapin attended the party.
Investigators said the victims and two other people living in the home returned home at 2 a.m. on Nov. 13. Later, investigators said, surveillance video showed a white car appeared continuously next to the house. Mr. Kohberger drives a white Hyundai Elantra.
Authorities said Mr Kohberger’s mobile phone was traveling through the area early in the morning, but was disconnected from the mobile network – they said it was probably turned off – for a two-hour period around murder occurred.
Investigators spent weeks looking for a suspect in the case. Eventually, they learned that the DNA they found on the sheath was related to DNA they found at the Kohberger family home in Pennsylvania, where Kohberger had visited in early December at the end of the fall semester.
The semester ended with Mr. Kohberger being embroiled in turmoil on his own campus, where officials investigated two of his quarrels with a professor and complaints about his behavior towards him. with women. Mr. Kohberger is resign from the position of teaching assistant weeks after the murder. He was arrested in Pennsylvania on December 30.
Mr. Kohberger’s lawyers were bracing for a lengthy preliminary hearing in the case scheduled for late June, but a grand jury indictment last week prompted a hearing. that becomes unnecessary. Instead, much of the evidence gathered by prosecutors that would have been made public at such a hearing will remain undisclosed to date.
Mr. Kohberger arrived at the hearing Monday in an orange jumpsuit, with shackles around his ankles. As he peered across the crowded courtroom toward a group of relatives of the victims, they stared at him in silence.
Mr Kohberger repeatedly answered “yes” when asked if he understood each of the charges against him and if he understood he could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of a crime. on the four counts of murder or not.
