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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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Bryan Kohberger, the man charged with the murders of four University of Idaho students, has asked a judge to move his trial, arguing that it is impossible for him to get a fair trial in Latah County.
Kohberger, 29, is charged with fatally stabbing the students—Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20— at a rental home near the college campus in Moscow, Idaho, in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. At the time of the slayings, Kohberger was a graduate student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington.
Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania about six weeks after the killings. Investigators said they linked him to the crime using DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene, surveillance videos and cellphone data.
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A judge entered not-guilty pleas on Kohberger's behalf in 2023. His lawyers have provided details about Kohberger's alibi in court documents, saying he was out driving alone the night of the killings. His trial is set to begin in June 2025. Kohberger faces the death penalty if convicted.
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In a court filing on Monday, Kohberger's public defender Anne Taylor argued for the trial to move out of Latah County, saying the 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," Taylor wrote.
"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."
Taylor added that Latah County is a "small, tightly knit community" and that based on survey results, it has "a prejudgment for conviction and death sentence."
She added that the small size of the county means there are more people connected to the case than in other counties.
"Some of the major employers in the community are people connected to law enforcement and the University of Idaho," Taylor wrote.
Taylor said that Kohberger's constitutional right to a fair trial must be "carefully guarded" and that moving the trial to Ada County—which she says is 12 times bigger than Latah County—would provide "a greater hope of seating an impartial jury."
As of the 2020 census, the population in Latah County neared 40,000 while that of Ada County was close to 500,000.
"Mr. Kohberger has the right of a presumption of innocence; he is guaranteed the protection of a fair jury and due process of law," she concluded.
"Given the level of bias in Latah County, Mr. Kohberger cannot receive a fair trial. An impartial jury in this community cannot be picked. The Court must protect Mr. Kohberger's Constitutional Rights and grant a change of venue."
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said that he does not think a change of venue is needed because the case has received national and international attention.
"It's not Moscow. It's not Latah County. It's everywhere. So, I don't think that a change of venue is going to solve any of these problems," he said during a pretrial hearing earlier this year.
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