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Lawyers for the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students are urging a judge to move his murder trial away from the county, arguing the intense media coverage and public interest in the case make it impossible for him to get a fair trial.
“The prolific media coverage, in Latah County, is not a mere passing story,” Anne Taylor, a public defender for Bryan Kohberger, said in a change-of-venue motion made public Tuesday. “The content is not benign, rather, it is inflammatory, emotion evoking and often misleading, false, and poorly sourced. There is no reasonable belief that media coverage will slow, regardless of how long the case takes to prepare for trial.”
In order to protect Kohberger's constitutional right to a fair trial, it should be moved to Boise, she said.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he opposes moving the trial. He has argued that the case has received national and international attention so taking it away out of the county would not affect a potential jurors' familiarity with the case.
The two sides are scheduled to argue their positions at an Aug. 29 hearing.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, is charged with fatally stabbing four students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, sometime in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.
Police arrested Kohberger six weeks later at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he was spending winter break. Investigators said they linked Kohberger to the crime using DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene, surveillance videos and cellphone data.
Kohberger has maintained his innocence. His defense lawyers have said in court documents that he was out driving alone the night of the killings, something he did often.
His trial is tentatively sent for June 2025.
It will be up to Judge John C. Judge to decide whether it remains in Moscow, with a population of 41,000, or moves 296 miles (476 kilometers) south to Boise, with a population of 236,634.
“Latah County, Idaho is a small, tightly knit community; based on survey results it is a community with a prejudgment for conviction and death sentence,” Taylor wrote. “Some of the major employers in the community are people connected to law enforcement and the University of Idaho.”
