An Idaho judge says he won’t postpone the quadruple murder trial of a man accused in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, while also rejecting the defense team’s request to present evidence suggesting possible “alternate perpetrators.”
Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler made the ruling Thursday, telling Bryan Kohberger’s attorneys that jury selection will begin in August and opening arguments will likely be held around Aug. 18.
Hippler rejected the request from Kohberger’s lawyers to present the jury with theories of four “alternate perpetrators,” writing that evidence presented by the defense is “entirely irrelevant.”
“Nothing links these individuals to the homicides or otherwise gives rise to a reasonable inference that they committed the crime; indeed, it would take nothing short of rank speculation by the jury to make such a finding,” Hippler wrote in the order.
Kohberger, 30, a former graduate student in criminal justice at Washington State University, is charged with four counts of murder. Prosecutors say he sneaked into a rental home in nearby Moscow, Idaho, not far from the University of Idaho campus, and fatally stabbed Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves on Nov. 13, 2022.
Kohberger stood silent at his arraignment, prompting a judge to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Defense attorney Anne Taylor had asked the judge to delay the proceedings. She said beginning the trial this summer would violate Kohberger’s right to a fair trial in part because his defense team was still reviewing evidence and struggling to get potential witnesses to agree to be interviewed. She also said extensive publicity could taint the proceedings and that a cooling off period would help ensure an impartial jury.
But Hippler noted that interest in the case has only grown and that previous delays have only given the media more time to “provide coverage to a public audience which is clamoring for answers.”
“The longer the public is made to sit and wait for the facts to come out at trial, the more time there is for inflammatory, speculative stories, movies and books to circulate and more time for prior ones to be rebroadcast, purchased, viewed and consumed by the public,” he wrote.
Hippler also denied the defense’s request to present evidence of four “alternate perpetrators” to jurors, after finding that evidence was flimsy at best and would lead to “wild speculation,” needlessly dragging out a trial that is already expected to last three months.
The names of the four were redacted from the ruling, but Hippler briefly described them: Three of the people were socially connected to at least one of the victims, and interacted with them socially in the hours before the killings, lived within walking distance of the home and had been to the home before. The fourth person had only a “passing connection” to one victim after noticing her at a store several weeks before the deaths, Hippler said.
All four cooperated with investigators, and their DNA didn’t match samples taken at the crime scene, Hippler said, and there is no admissible or significant evidence that any one of them had a motive, was present at the crime scene or was otherwise connected to the crime.
“There is not a scintilla of competent evidence connecting them to the crime,” Hippler said.
Jury selection will begin Aug. 4, Hippler said, with the trial starting about two weeks later.
In May, Hippler said he wanted to identify anyone who may have violated a gag order by leaking information from the investigation to news organizations or anyone else not directly involved with the case.
Hippler ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to give him a list of everyone — including staffers, law enforcement officers and defense consultants — who might have had access to the previously unreported information about Kohberger’s internet search history and other details that were featured in an NBC “Dateline” episode that aired May 9.
Last month, Hippler ruled that Kohberger’s immediate family members will be allowed to attend his upcoming trial, even if they might be called to testify.
Hippler previously ruled that family members of the victims may attend the trial. Steve Goncalves, whose daughter was killed, attended a hearing with his wife in early April where attorneys debated what could be presented during Kohberger’s trial.
Steve Goncalves told “48 Hours” last year that “there’s evidence to show that she awakened and tried to get out of that situation,” saying “she was trapped” based on the way the bed was set up.
