An attorney who is representing accused University of Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger had also represented one of the victims’ mothers in an unrelated drug case.
According to the Idaho Statesman, chief Kootenai County public defender Anne Taylor withdrew from that case on January 5 — the same day Kohberger appeared in Idaho following his extradition from Pennsylvania. Taylor not only withdrew from that case involving the parent, but another in which the parent faced two felony charges.
The Idaho Statesman reported that the parent was previously sentenced in an unrelated misdemeanor case. While the local news outlet did not identify the person at the center of the case, Fox News reported that it was the mother of victim Xana Kernodle.
According to Fox, Taylor had been representing Kernodle’s mother in a drug possession case. Attorney Christopher Schwartz is now handling her case. The Idaho Statesman reported that he is listed as her “conflict public defender.”
Kohberger, a Ph.D. criminal justice student at Washington State University, is believed to have turned off his phone during the November 13 murders. However, police claim he visited the area 12 times before the slayings.
The probable cause affidavit alleged that campus police at Kohberger’s college alerted Moscow, Idaho, police to his white 2015 Hyundai Elantra, which resembles a car seen at the victims’ home around the time they were killed.
Surveillance footage showed a white four-door sedan, but it did not capture its front license plate. At the time of the killings, Kohberger’s car was registered in Pennsylvania, which does not require front plates.
Kohberger was arrested on December 30, after a cross-country trip with his father from Idaho to Pennsylvania. During their trip, Indiana police pulled over the pair twice. Sources claimed the FBI requested the traffic stops to view possible injuries on Kohberger’s hands.
Kohberger remains jailed without bail.
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[Featured image: Xana Kernodle/Facebook]
