Prosecutors dispute Kohberger defense claims to strike evidence from Idaho murder case

Prosecutors in the capital murder case against Bryan Kohberger countered claims from the defense that a raft of evidence against the accused killer should be withheld from trial because it was improperly gathered by police during the investigation.

Led by Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, state attorneys argued in more than a dozen legal briefs – most of them sealed – that the evidence in question should remain available to them to prove Kohberger’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The briefs were submitted to the court last Friday, but those made public did not publish to an Idaho court’s website until late Thursday because the judge in the case took several days to review them, a court clerk told the Idaho Statesman.

Prosecutors sought in the filings to thwart attempts by Kohberger’s defense to suppress certain evidence that police said ties the defendant to the November 2022 fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in Moscow. Those pieces of evidence were reported in a probable cause affidavit for the defendant’s arrest. They include DNA developed with an advanced technique known as investigative genetic genealogy, or IGG, and all digital information found through search warrants for Kohberger’s Google, Amazon, Apple iCloud and AT&T cellphone accounts.

Evidence that police found through searching the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s parents, his student apartment in Pullman, his white Hyundai Elantra, and Kohberger himself during his arrest and later in jail should also be blocked, his defense argued.

In prior court filings, Kohberger’s attorneys alleged that police violated their client’s constitutional rights when they “either intentionally or recklessly omitted” material information from a judge in affidavits used to obtain search warrants. For others, investigators were overly broad in identifying what they sought, and the results should be dropped, Kohberger’s defense said.

Prosecutors rejected the premise in each instance, according to court records. For search warrants, police established sufficient probable cause with the judge who approved them, wrote Thompson and Ashley Jennings, his office’s senior deputy prosecutor. With some digital information, the law does not require the level of detail that Kohberger’s attorneys suggest is needed, they wrote in another.

Citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Thompson wrote in one objection that Idaho recognizes that “great deference is paid to” a judge’s determination of probable cause. The search warrants were written with legally required specificity, Jennings wrote in another, and a court’s “commonsense and realistic” interpretation should find it so.

The defense has a chance to respond, with filings due by Dec. 20. An evidence suppression hearing is scheduled for late January.

The prosecution’s briefs in response to IGG, and evidence obtained from Kohberger’s Google and Amazon accounts and his parents’ home, that included statements Kohberger’s defense said he made to police after his arrest, were kept under seal. The exhibits filed in support also were also kept private. However, following his review, Ada County Judge Steven Hippler, who is overseeing the case, appears to have released five other filings that the prosecution requested be withheld from the public.

Defense seeks search warrants evidentiary hearing

Kohberger, 30, is suspected of killing the four U I students at a home near the Moscow campus. The victims were Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20. The three women lived at the home, while Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over for the night.

Kohberber is charged with five felonies: four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He has spent roughly two years in police custody awaiting trial, and is eligible to face the death penalty if a jury finds him guilty of murder.

After Hippler recently denied the defense’s efforts to remove capital punishment as a sentencing option if Kohberger is convicted, the Goncalves family said they were “overjoyed.”

“Not just for our family, but for our friends, supporters, and everyone who has shed a tear, made a donation, or listened to the story of these beautiful children who were so senselessly taken from us,” the family said in a statement through their attorney. “Justice is moving forward, and, we pray that one day in the not-so-distant future, it will be served.”

In the defense’s push last month to have evidence in the state’s case against Kohberger struck from trial, his attorneys asked Hippler to schedule what is known as a Franks hearing, when they would challenge the validity of the search warrants obtained by police during their investigation. They alleged that police provided false information to receive a judge’s sign-off for search warrants, and argued to toss that evidence. All of the supporting exhibits and court documents were filed under seal.

Separately, Hippler held a closed-door motions hearing on Wednesday between himself and just the defense. The substance of that hearing remains out of the public eye.

In their latest filings, prosecutors objected to the defense’s request to hold a Franks hearing, though that and all its contents were filed under seal, too. The specific allegations and responses remain unknown to the public.

Boise criminal defense attorney Edwina Elcox previously told the Statesman that an accusation that warrants a Franks hearing is very serious, because it’s tantamount to saying police lied or deliberately held back information from a judge to get a search warrant. They’re also difficult to prove, she said.

“Franks hearings are particularly challenging,” Elcox said. “It is beyond an uphill battle, but, if his attorneys are successful, the ramifications for the prosecution’s case are devastating.”

Kohberger’s trial, which was moved from Moscow to Boise, is scheduled for next summer. It will begin with jury selection on July 30, 2025.