Bryan Kohberger back in court for likely final pretrial hearing in Idaho student killings case

By Eric Levenson, Jean Casarez and Lauren del Valle, CNN

(CNN) — Bryan Kohberger, the former criminology grad student accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, is set to appear in court Thursday in what may be his last pretrial hearing before the start of his much-anticipated trial.

Kohberger, 30, faces four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were fatally stabbed at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in the overnight hours of November 13, 2022.

Kohberger was arrested in the killings over a month later in his home state of Pennsylvania. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf in May 2023.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin in late July, with the trial slated to start August 11. If convicted, Kohberger could face the death penalty.

The lurid case has riveted the public and has already been featured in multiple true crime documentaries. Still, prosecutors have not outlined his potential motive, and a sweeping gag order has kept the parties from speaking publicly, making each pretrial hearing an opportunity to quench the public’s thirst to learn more details.

Recent pretrial hearings have touched on the admissibility of key pieces of evidence, including Kohberger’s autism diagnosis, DNA analysis, his Amazon purchase history and a witness’s description of the suspect’s “bushy eyebrows.”

For one, the defense had requested to tell the jury Kohberger has autism spectrum disorder – a condition they say will explain what might be perceived as odd behavior as he sits at the defense table. However, Judge Steven Hippler denied the request, saying it was not relevant unless he testifies. Kohberger’s attorneys have repeatedly said it’s unlikely he’ll take the stand in his own defense because of his diagnosis.

In another ruling, the judge said prosecutors can call an expert witness to testify about Amazon data they say reveals Kohberger bought a knife, sheath and sharpener made by the same company as a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

The possibility of the death penalty hangs over the case. If he is convicted of capital murder, Kohberger would then face a penalty phase in which the jury will consider further evidence and decide whether he is sentenced to death or a lesser punishment – life in prison.

How we got here

The killings of four University of Idaho students in an off-campus home in Moscow in November 2022 were as brutal as they were perplexing.

The group of friends had gone out in the college town and returned to their shared home late. The next day, police found the four students slaughtered inside, and there were no signs of forced entry or damage.

The brutal stabbings rattled Moscow, a city of 25,000 people that hadn’t recorded a murder since 2015. The slayings led to weeks of investigation from police, frustrations from the victims’ families about the pace of the police work and fear in the local community of a mass killer on the loose.

On December 30, investigators arrested Kohberger – a grad student living in nearby Pullman, Washington – at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania. Investigators had connected him to a white vehicle seen near the killings, DNA recovered from a tan leather knife sheath found near Mogen’s body and his cell phone location data near the home, according to court documents.

Since then, the progression of the case has been slowed by a series of pretrial motions and hearings related to the death penalty, a gag order, the use of investigative genetic genealogy and Kohberger’s proposed alibi.

The case is likely to hinge on DNA evidence from a knife sheath, under a victim’s fingernails and in bloodstains.

The prosecution’s most important piece of evidence is a DNA sample taken from a knife sheath left at the crime scene. Investigators then used investigative genetic genealogy, or IGG – a forensic field combining DNA analysis with genealogical research – to connect that sample to Kohberger’s family, according to prosecutors. Subsequent DNA testing found Kohberger was a “statistical match” to the sample, leading to his arrest, according to prosecutors.

To combat that evidence, his defense team has repeatedly questioned the use, legality and accuracy of the DNA testing done in each step of the process.

“The DNA could make or break the case, and it’s all about what the jury finds to be credible,” Misty Marris, an attorney who has closely followed the case, told CNN in March.

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CNN’s Alaa Elassar and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.