BRYAN Kohberger’s legal team has insisted the suspect can prove he was not at the murder scene when four University of Idaho students were killed in 2022.
Kohberger, 29, laid out his alibi in a new court filing on Wednesday that detailed his love for driving around at night and taking hikes.
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Kohberger is awaiting trial after he was accused of fatally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20 in their off-campus apartment in November 2022.
Kohberger, a graduate student at Washington State University at the time, was arrested the following month and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
His legal team has now insisted in court documents that cellphone data will prove that he wasn’t at the Moscow home when the victims were killed.
The court filing describes how Kohberger moved to Pullman, Washington, in June 2022.
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He was described as an “avid runner and hiker” who explored many areas of the Palouse, a region in southeastern Washington.
“Of note, he explored Wawawai Park in July of 2022 and this became his favorite location,” his attorneys wrote.
They said that after school began, Kohberger got busy with classes and work at Washington State University and was unable to enjoy his usual hobbies as much.
“His running and hiking decreased but did not stop. Instead, his nighttime drives increased,” the court document said.
His attorneys said cellphone data will show him in the countryside late at night and in the early morning on several occasions.
“The phone data includes numerous photographs taken on several different late evenings and early mornings, including in November, depicting the night sky,” the court document says.
His attorneys then laid out his alibi on the night of the murders, writing, “Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars.
“He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park.”
WITNESS AT TRIAL
Kohberger’s legal team intends to call a cell tower witness to testify at trial.
They aim to demonstrate that location data from Kohberger’s phone contradicts the state’s claims about his car location in the early morning hours.
They say the expert’s testimony will show Kohberger’s phone was south of Pullman, Washington, and west of Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022, and did not travel east on Moscow-Pullman Highway.
University of Idaho murders timeline
On November 13, 2022, a brutal home invasion claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in their Moscow, Idaho, off-campus home.
A six-week manhunt ensued as cops searched for a suspect.
On December 28, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, 29, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania – 2,500 miles away from the crime scene.
He was taken into custody and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, has been linked to the crime scene through phone records, his car’s location, and DNA evidence found at the home where the murders took place.
The house was demolished in December 2023 despite backlash from the victims’ families.
Kohberger is being held at Latah County Jail while he awaits trial.
“And thus could not be the vehicle captured on video along the Moscow-Pullman highway near Floyd’s Cannabis shop,” they wrote.
Kohberger’s legal team requested the state’s discovery in the filing and said they’d hand over more information about Kohberger’s whereabouts in exchange.
They wrote that if the state doesn’t disclose the information, the expert’s testimony will reveal “critical exculpatory evidence, further corroborating Kohberger’s alibi, was either not preserved or has been withheld.”
EVIDENCE AGAINST KOHBERGER
It was Kohberger’s cellphone activity that helped investigators place him near the scene of the crime.
His phone was traced near the off-campus Moscow home 12 times in the months leading up to the murders, prosecutors previously said.
Kohberger’s phone also pinged in the area near the home once in the hours after the students were killed, court documents alleged.
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“Further review indicated that the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources on November 13, 2022, that are consistent with the 8458 Phone leaving the area of the Kohberger Residence at approximately [9] am and traveling to Moscow, ID,” investigators wrote in the docs.
“Specifically, the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources that would provide coverage to the King Road Residence between 9:12 am and 9:21 am.”
Police identified his 8458 number after Kohberger confirmed the phone as his own in an August 21, 2022, police stop in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger was also arrested based on a knife sheath that police recovered at the scene that allegedly contained his DNA.
Investigators then used that DNA to identify Kohberger using genealogy.
Kohberger has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and his next hearing is scheduled for May 14.
His lawyers previously said his trial could start as late as summer 2025.
If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
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