On Thursday, a judge scheduled a man to stand trial next June for the slayings of University of Idaho students in 2022.
The Idaho Statesman reported that Bryan Kohberger’s trial is expected to last three months. However, where the trial will take place remains undetermined.
Kohberber’s attorneys and prosecutors did not object to the proposed trial date. Lead defense attorney Anne Taylor noted that they have yet to present evidence showing why the trial should take place outside of Latah County.
Kohberger’s attorneys have claimed Kohberger was not at the crime scene and was driving around alone the night Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, and Kaylee Goncalves were fatally stabbed at the women’s off-campus home on November 13, 2022.
Mogen was found dead in bed next to Goncalves, and a knife sheath was reportedly discovered near their bodies. Downstairs, on the second floor, Kernodle was found slain next to Chapin, her boyfriend. Two surviving roommates discovered the bodies and called the cops.
Police claimed Kohberger visited the area 12 times before the slayings and that he turned off his phone on the night in question.
Investigators tested DNA from a trash can outside Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania against DNA found on the sheath at the crime scene. Testing determined that “at least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father.”
At the time of the slayings, Kohberger was obtaining his Ph.D. in criminology from Washington State University, which is located 10 miles from the crime scene. He was arrested in Pennsylvania in December 2022, after taking a cross-country road trip with his father from Washington to Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors filed court documents detailing their intent to pursue the death penalty as they deemed the slayings were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.”
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[Featured image: August Frank/The Lewiston Tribune via AP, Pool]
