Attorneys in the case of the graduate student accused of slaughtering four University of Idaho students in 2022 returned to court Thursday for another round of hearings, most centering on the defense’s contention that prosecutors have not given them all the information they’ve requested.
Anne Taylor, public defender for Bryan Kohberger, called a police department employee and a true crime podcast host who doubles as an “expert” on cell phone data to the stand, KXLY reported.
Brett Payne of the Moscow Police Department told Taylor to contact the evidence custodian if she believes she hasn’t gotten all the video surveillance collected in the case. She was particularly interested in video heading south on US-95 from Moscow, but Payne said investigators didn’t get any video from that area and aren’t sure Kohberger went that direction anyway.
There are “several routes” he could have used, Payne said, and police are “not sure” which one he might have taken.
The hearings are related to motions Taylor has submitted to “compel” prosecutors to turn over more information, as CrimeOnline reported. Both sides say the case is extremely complex with thousands of data items. The state contends they have turned over everything that is relevant.
The defense cell phone expert, Sy Ray, testified that he believes a small percentage of cell phone data hasn’t been turned over to defense attorneys and that what he’s seen helps Kohberger. Ray invented a system of mapping cell phone data that has not always been accepted by courts.
The defense says that Kohberger was out driving around and stargazing on the night of the murders and wasn’t in Moscow. Investigators say Kohberger’s cell phone was turned off and not connecting with cell phone towers at the time of the murders and therefore could not be tracked.
Later in the hearing, Taylor pushed to have prosecutors turn over 71 grand jury suboenas issued in the case, but the state contends they don’t have those documents because they were federal grand juries., KXLY said. Taylor argued, however, that the state used those subpoenas “to get one of the most critical pieces of evidence in this case” without saying what that evidence was.
A second hearing was held in the afternoon, but that hearing was closed to the public. It involved the defense attempts to get more investigative genetic genealogy information, which investigators used to narrow down a suspect list to Kohberger’s family. Prosecutors say, however, that information was irrelevant in the end, once they got a sample of Kohberger’s DNA collected through a cheek swab.
Judge John Judge will make rulings on the motions later.
Kohberger is charged with the murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves. No trial date has been set.
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[Featured image: FILE – Bryan Kohberger listens to arguments during a hearing in Moscow, Idaho, on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (Kai Eiselein/New York Post via AP, Pool, File)]
