BOISE, Idaho — The defense for Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of the University of Idaho student homicides, rejected arguments from prosecutors that Moscow remains an acceptable place for the suspect to receive a fair trial next summer.
Elisa Massoth, one of Kohberger’s attorneys, continued the push to move their client’s capital murder trial 300 miles south to Boise. The North Idaho region has been tainted by intense media coverage of the case, she wrote, which has created a “mob mentality within the community” about Kohberger’s possible culpability.
“The traumatized town of Moscow is understandably filled with deeply held prejudgment opinions of guilt,” Massoth wrote in a Monday court filing made public Tuesday. “Latah County mob mentality will never produce a (jury pool) that results in a cross section of the community.”
The defense backed its preference for a venue change to the Idaho capital for the trial with results from a phone survey conducted by a hired trial consultant. They supported it with analysis from a University of Nevada, Reno, social psychologist, whom they may also call as an expert witness at a court hearing next week over the venue change question before Judge John Judge.
Kohberger, 29, is accused of killing the four U of I students at an off-campus home in November 2022. The victims were seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20. Kohberger was arrested on suspicion of the violent crime in late December 2022 at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania, where he grew up.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted. A court hearing over possible challenges to the death penalty is tentatively scheduled for early November.
Prosecutors last week submitted their written opposition to the defense’s request to move the trial outside of Latah County. County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, who is leading the prosecution of Kohberger, said the defense had failed to meet the burden under Idaho law to show that a venue change was “necessary or convenient.”
“Even if the court were to be persuaded that a fair and impartial jury could not be empaneled in Latah County, the court could … draw upon a jury pool from a neighboring county,” Thompson wrote. He suggested selecting a jury from nearby Nez Perce County and driving them in for Kohberger’s trial.
Prosecutors also argued that the “interest of justice” for keeping the trial in Moscow should consider the families of the four victims, who may seek to attend the trial.
The defense responded that the state’s proposal to bring in jury prospects from the county directly south still would be insufficient for achieving an impartial group of people to serve as jurors with their client’s life possibly on the line. Ada County, with its much greater population, grants Kohberger’s best chance at a fair trial, they wrote.
“Expanding the jury pool to Nez Perce County is not a remedy,” the Monday filing read. They “have been exposed to 36% of the total media coverage and are more than 10 times more likely to encounter coverage as compared to residents of Ada County.”
That media coverage — in print, online, as well as on television and the radio — “is often inaccurate and inflammatory,” the defense wrote, without providing specific examples. The sheer amount of coverage in the closely watched case is disqualifying of Moscow hosting the trial, they wrote.
“The media coverage inundating Latah County does not tell citizens that no evidence has been presented at this time; that there are no facts on the record at this time; that Bryan Kohberger is innocent,” Monday’s court filing read. “Publicity regarding Mr. Kohberger has been ongoing since Dec. 30, 2022. It rises and falls but does not wane.”
