Defense attorneys for Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger hope bombshell new evidence might exonerate him from charges of stabbing four college students to death.
Kohberger, 30, is accused of murdering Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle at their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
But his attorneys have claimed police found blood at the crime scene from two still-unidentified males, the Idaho Statesman reported.
One unknown individual’s blood DNA was discovered on a handrail inside the home, which was demolished in December 2023, Kohberger’s lead defense attorney told the court last month.
Kohberger’s lawyers claim another man’s DNA was found outside the home on a glove.
The stunning revelations could offer a hint as to the criminology student’s possible defense strategy during his upcoming August trial.
Prosecutors have not disputed the claims, meaning that the evidence is likely to feature prominently in Kohberger’s defense.
But at the January hearing, Ada County District Judge Steven Hippler pushed back on the defense, citing a leather sheath for a knife found in the bed of one of the four victims with DNA that matched Kohberger’s.
“How does that, even if disclosed, preclude a finding of probable cause when there’s a DNA match between the DNA on the sheath and Mr Kohberger?” Judge Hippler asked defense attorney Anne Taylor.
“Isn’t that probable cause every day and twice on Sunday?”
But Taylor argued that probable cause shouldn’t be considered in a vacuum.
“If that’s the only thing she’s told, I can see why she’d find probable cause,” Taylor said of the magistrate judge.
“It’s these other things that are withheld that create a context around it. Do we want to have one thing with no context around it when there’s this other context that really matters?”
If found guilty of the four murders, Kohberger faces the possibility of the death penalty.
The former graduate student at Washington State University faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
A Moscow grand jury unanimously found probable cause and indicted Kohberger on all five felony charges.
In May 2023, a Moscow judge entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf after he refused to speak at his arraignment.
His trial has been moved to Boise and is scheduled to begin in August.
