Defense lawyers of a man accused in the death of four University of Idaho students can resume telephone surveys of potential jurors in the case, a judge has ruled.
Bryan Kohberger faces four counts of murder in connection with the November 2022 stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. A judge has entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger's behalf, and prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty if convicted.
Kohberger's defense team hired a consultant to survey potential jurors who live near the university about things they might have seen, heard or read about the case. The phone survey included questions about Kohberger's arrest, the type of car he owns, DNA evidence and a knife sheath found near one of the bodies. It also included questions about whether the respondent had seen true crime-style shows about the case or other things they might have heard.
When prosecutors learned of the survey earlier this year, they asked Second District Judge John Judge to order the defense team to stop, arguing that the surveys violated a broad gag order that the judge had issued in the case. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said some of the questions could prejudice people who could be called as jurors when the case goes to trial.
In a ruling issued Friday, Judge said the surveys could continue as long as the questions did not violate his gag order. Most of the questions included information that was already publicly available through court documents, the judge wrote in the ruling, and therefore did not violate the order.
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Other questions about rumors people might have heard or crime documentaries they might have seen about the case were not part of the public record when the inquests began, but have since been debated and argued in open court, the which means they are now too. part of the public record and may be included in future surveys, Judge said.
The bodies of the four University of Idaho students were found in a rental home near campus on November 13, 2022. The home has since been demolished.
Police arrested Kohberger, 29 and then a graduate student at nearby Washington State University, more than six weeks later at his parents' home in eastern Pennsylvania, where he had gone for winter break.
Last week, a court document revealed that Kohberger's lawyers plan to use cell tower data to prove that it was not in the place where the murders took place. Documents purportedly providing an alibi for Kohberger said he “was driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to walk and run and/or see the moon and stars. He drove all over the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho, including Wawawai Park.”
The document says a cell site location information expert will testify that cell tower data shows that “Kohberger's mobile device was located south of Pullman, Washington and west of Moscow, Idaho , on Nov. 13, 2022; that Bryan Kohberger's mobile device was not traveling eastbound on the Moscow -Pullman Highway in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, and therefore could not be the vehicle captured on video. along the Moscow-Pullman highway near Floyd's cannabis store.
An earlier affidavit stated that investigators had found cell tower data from that morning that showed Kohberger's phone in Pullman around 2:47 a.m. the night of the murders, when it suddenly went offline. -se on the cellular network, according to “48 hours.” It was around this time that surveillance video caught his car leaving his apartment, “48 Hours” reported.
Jordan Freiman contributed to this report.
