(NewsNation) — Bryan Kohberger will stand trial in Boise, Idaho, after a judge earlier this week ruled that the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students could not get a fair trial in the small college town of Moscow.
The case was transferred to the Fourth District Court of Ada County, Idaho, after Latah County Judge John Judge ordered the change of venue earlier this week.
Judge Steven Hippler ordered Thursday that Kohberger be transferred into the custody of the Ada County Sheriff’s Department.
Boise is nearly 300 miles from Moscow, where the alleged slayings of the four students took place. Kohberger faces four murder charges in connection with the November 2022 stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
Authorities in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, arrested Kohberger, then a student at Washington State University, on Dec. 30, 2022.
The judge also agreed with Kohberger’s lawyer on the massive publicity of the case making it difficult to find impartial jurors in Latah County. The new venue is the same courtroom where Chad Daybell was found guilty earlier this year of killing his ex-wife and two children in 2019. Daybell was sentenced to death in the slayings.
“Despite efforts by the parties and the Court to protect the jury pool from being inundated with information that is potentially prejudicial and false, extensive media coverage by mainstream media sources such as newspapers, radio stations, and television news outlets has continued throughout the state and nationally,” the judge said.
The judge cited “prejudicial misinformation, rumors, and patently false theories of the case on social media outlets such as Facebook, podcasts, and blogs” that could create bias.
Kohberger’s attorneys pushed for the trial to be moved to Boise. Kohberger’s team brought forth witnesses to testify on how media coverage and public sentiment could impact potential jurors, even if they believed they could be impartial.
One witness also suggested the high level of public emotion around the case could put pressure on jurors who might worry their identity would get out and would not want to have to return to the community and explain why they voted to acquit him.
An attorney for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the four students killed, told NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield that they want the case tried in Latah County.
