Bryan Kohberger Murder Case: Defense Attorneys Accuse Idaho DA of Slow Progress
DEBARYLIFE – Thursday was Bryan Kohberger’s pretrial hearing. Witnesses provided testimony regarding the gathering of evidence and cellphone data. Bryan Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students.
The state disputes the accusations made by Kohberger’s defense lawyers that the prosecutors withheld some evidence from them during the discovery process.
Idaho Judge John Judge was informed by a defense attorney that “discovery is being given to us like we are living in a snow globe.”
As part of the inquiry, thousands of hours of surveillance video were gathered, according to the first witness, Moscow Police Detective Brett Payne, who testified on Thursday.
Police have thousands of hours of video from 79 homes and businesses connected to the case, Payne said defense counsel Anne Taylor. The defense attorneys also inquired as to whether any evidence about cellular data was absent.
In his testimony, witness Sy Ray—a former detective for the Arizona police—said that two to three percent of the cellphone data in the case is missing. ZetX Corporation is a company that specializes in cellular geolocation mapping.
“Some of the most significant locations in the case are missing data,” stated Ray.
The individual observed that in order to determine Kohberger’s phone location during the murders, he would require access to all AT&T source data as well as additional information.
“Because of the piecemealing of the data, because of the missing data, because of the data I’m reviewing that is incredibly inaccurate, everything that is missing is absolutely in benefit of the defense right now,” Ray stated in court. “There are other reports that are missing that I can’t tell you are benefiting of Mr. Kohberger or the state.”
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The masked man who broke into a home a short distance from the University of Idaho campus on November 13, 2022, at around four in the morning, is said to be Kohberger, according to the prosecution. Inside the residence, four college students were discovered dead: 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, who was visiting, 21-year-old Maddie Mogen and 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, who lived with Xana Kernodle.
Along with a case of felony burglary, he is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
The killings occurred on December 30, 2022, in Kohberger’s home state of Pennsylvania. Kohberger is a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University.
Phone pings, according to investigators, showed that Kohberger was close to the house on the day of the killings. However, defense attorneys contend that Kohberger was driving and not anywhere near the house, where the crimes took place—he frequently liked to “see the moon and stars.”
It has been claimed by prosecutors that the alibi is “too vague.” One victim’s knife sheath was purportedly where investigators discovered Kohberger’s DNA.
Previously, his lawyers have contended that the state has botched all of the evidence for the defense to analyze and that the DNA may have been planted at the scene. After using distant relatives to establish the relationship to Kohberger, investigators purportedly verified a match using a DNA sample.
No date has been scheduled for the trial yet. Should he be found guilty, Kohberger might be executed.
Witnesses from DNA were scheduled to speak after the judge momentarily delayed the hearing.