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1 week ago
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Idaho Murder Case: New Details About Bryan Kohberger's Alibi
New findings in the Idaho college murder case have emerged.
Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger—who has been accused of fatally stabbing University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at a rental home in 2022—said an investigator discovered DNA evidence from three individuals under Mogen's fingernail.
"The data consisted of three person mixture," the defense wrote in a motion unsealed on March 4 and obtained by E! News, noting that comparison to Kohberger's DNA was found "inconclusive," meaning he could neither be confirmed or eliminated as one of the contributors.
They said at least four other unnamed individuals were also tested during the investigation, with their results coming back as "inconclusive" as well.
Kohberger's lawyers alleged the investigator used "misleading language" when they focusing on Kohberger's "inconclusive" results during a grand jury testimony, potentially setting up the 29-year-old for an unfair trial.
"All of these individuals sit in the same shoes as Mr. Kohberger," the defense wrote in their filing, which had the investigator's testimony redacted from its pages. "Thus, Mr. Kohberger's inconclusive LR is similar to almost every other person for whom an LR was generated and focusing on his 'inconclusive' LR would mislead the jury."
Kohberger's legal team is
looking to have parts of the investigator's testimony excluded before his case heads trial in August.
Kohberger—who had a judge enter a not guilty plea to his murder charges when he remained silent during his 2023 arraignment—could face the death penalty if found guilty.
Photo by Ted S. Warren-Pool/Getty Images
In February, a judge denied the Washington State University alum's motion to suppress DNA evidence concerning a knife sheath that police say was found at the scene of the murders and trash taken from outside the home of Kohberger's parents.
While the defense argued law enforcement violated Kohberger's constitutional rights by not obtaining a warrant before conducting the trash pull, the judge disagreed and said the criminology graduate "exposed his DNA to the public by leaving it on the sheath" and that "by throwing away item of trash containing his DNA, defendant cannot object to testing of that DNA," per NBC News.
The judge also ruled that Kohberger's cell phone and email records, as well as surveillance footage and his Amazon purchase history, can be used in his upcoming trial.
(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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