Idaho judge rules on Bryan Kohberger’s motion to change venue in student murder trial
An Idaho judge has granted suspected quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger’s request to have his trial moved out of Latah County, where he is accused of killing four college students in an early morning home invasion attack.
Judge John Judge’s order was unsealed Monday, moving the trial to the larger Ada County and finding that massive media coverage of the case could taint the local jury.
Ada County also has a larger courthouse to accommodate more members of the public and what is expected to be a large contingent of journalists.
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Bryan Christopher Kohberger arrives at Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on Jan. 3, 2023, before waiving extradition to Idaho to face murder charges in the stabbing deaths of four university students. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Prosecutors sought to have the trial held at the courthouse in Moscow, next to the jail where the 29-year-old Kohberger has been held without bail since shortly after his arrest in Pennsylvania at his parents’ house, roughly seven weeks after the Nov. 13, 2022 slayings.
Kohberger’s lawyers argued that the suspected quadruple murderer cannot get a fair trial in Latah County due to “extensive, inflammatory pretrial publicity.”
Kohberger is accused of entering an off-campus rental home around 4 a.m. on that date and fatally stabbing 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves as well as 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Read the judge’s order
IDAHO PROSECUTORS OBJECT TO BRYAN KOHBERGER DEFENSE’S EFFORT TO MOVE TRIAL
Judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf to four murder charges and felony burglary at his arraignment last year.
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Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
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Kohberger was a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, just 10 miles away across the state line at the time of the murders.
Police arrested him at his parents’ place in the Pocono Mountains after he drove home cross-country with his dad in the weeks following the slayings.
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Kohberger could face the death penalty if convicted. The victims will be honored with a memorial garden on campus designed by fellow students.
